XCOR Seeks Supply Chain Vendors

XCOR Aerospace is seeking qualified machine shops in the Midland/Odessa area. In order to do work for XCOR you must be ITAR compliant, which means that only U.S. citizens or permanent residents (green card holders) are allowed to work on or observe our parts and prints. Many of our parts are made directly from solid models. XCOR uses Solidworks software to produce our solid models, as well as many of our drawings. Some of our drawings are produced using 2D AutoCAD software.

Your shop must also be comfortable with doing small-batch production, as our typical orders are for small quantities of sophisticated parts. There are exceptions which will be noted below, but XCOR does not generally produce high-part-count work orders. XCOR welcomes shops that are willing to discuss manufacturing optimization with the engineers in charge of the part.

Our typical tolerances are +-0.005". Our primary material is 6061-T6. Other materials include other aluminum alloys, 303 and 304L stainless steel, Inconel 625 and 718, Invar 36, and Ti-6Al-4V, as well as non-metallic materials such as PTFE, CTFE/Kel-F, Delrin, and G-10 glass-reinforced composites.

The list below expresses the various scopes of work we will need done. Your shop does not need to be able to do all of them. Even if you work in only one area, or with one of the materials, we wish to hear from you.

• General quick-turn shop: A shop able to do basic machining in small quantities in the day-to-week timeframe.
• Swiss machine/ lathe shop: XCOR produces many custom fittings. This is one area where we often order larger quantities of parts. Multi-axis turning is a plus.
• Five axis capable shop: We will be needing parts that can only be made with five axis milling. We have an equal need for small parts (able to be fit onto trunnion table machines) and larger flying head type five axis machines.
• Exotic material capable shop: We sometimes need a shop to send parts that are Inconel, Nitronic, Invar, and Titanium. This shop needs to be able to hold very tight tolerances, to achieve fine surface finishes where necessary, and to have experience working with those materials. For example, XCOR will need a vendor for multi-axis titanium milling.
• Waterjet/Laser shop: XCOR will need a fabricator with quick-turn waterjet or laser cutting systems.
• Gun drilling shop. XCOR needs a facility that can drill both standard sized bores with high concentricity (on the order of .5~1.5") over ~36 inches as well as much smaller holes (~.050) over smaller distances.
• Honing shop: We need a shop that can provide honing services to finish bores after machining.
• Inspection shop: While we expect all work to be inspected, we also are looking for a shop with CMMs and other inspection equipment to assist in our more complicated fabrication procedures.

Water Jet Companies near Midland, Texas

Plating Companies near Midland, Texas

Honing companies near Midland, Texas

Weld shops near Midland, Texas

Machine shops near Midland, Texas

Powder Coating near Midland, Texas

Furnace Brazing shops within 500 miles of Midland, Texas

Please contact the Midland Development Corporation if you can provide these needs or know of a company that can provide these needs.

Pamela Welch – Executive Director
pwelch@midlandtxedc.com
(p) 432.686.3552
(m) 432.770.5501