NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Machining Centers
Photo credit: NASA

Johnson Space Center Engineering provides state-of-the-art technology for the manufacture, fabrication and assembly of developmental, test, and flight hardware, heavy machine manufacturing and assembly services (sheet metal, welding, and electrical), heat-treating services, metal finishing, painting, and clean room, modeling, nonmetallic and composite manufacturing, soft goods/fabrics, and measurement and inspection, production management & control, purchasing, inventory management & control.

Machining

Provides assorted CNC and manual milling machines, assorted CNC and manual lathes, and 3 assorted CNC Electrical Discharge Machining Centers. These machines provide the ability to produce machined parts from a wide range of materials to a maximum size of x 120", y 55", z 24". The most precision machines have a +- repeatability of .0001 with positional accuracy +- .0002.

Welding

Welders certified in AWS B2.1 - MIG, TIG, Pulse MIG and Stick. Qualifications supported in GTAW, GMAW, SMAW and silver brazing. Additional expertise in plasma cutting, arc gouging and track burning is available.

Photo credit: NASA

Fabrication/Assembly

Full sheet metal fabrication department consists of a 100 ton Strippet LVD CNC press brake, 23 ton manual press brake, 2 water knife machines with maximum capacity of 70" x 120" up to 3" thick for steel and 4" for aluminum. Also, provides shears, HEM saws and heat treating capabilities and maintains assembly skills to support flight and non flight assemblies.

Friction Stir Welding

Provided with a CNC controlled 5-axis machine with 7 degrees of freedom. Its' work envelope is 25"x40"x80". Similar and dissimilar materials, ferrous and non ferrous materials can be joined. R&D is available.

Photo credit: NASA Softgoods

Ten sewing machines and skilled technicians are available to support prototyping, engineering development and flight production. Our work includes tool caddies, holders, covers, multi layer insulation (MLI), MMOD ballistic debris shields, thermal covers/containers, IVA blankets, covers, cushions and expandable structures.

Metal Cleaning

We support a fully equipped metal clean and finish department consisting of chemical cleaning/degreasing operations, ultra sonic and vapor cleaning processes.

Metal Finishing

Environmentally controlled area provides 26-30"x24"x60" process tanks, type 2 anodizing tanks and part processing up to 300 pounds. Permits chemical conversion coatings for aluminum and aluminum alloys, anodize type 2 class I & II MIL-A-8625F and class 1A & class III MIL-C-5541E. Spray booths allow applying corrosive protection with paints, lacquers and lubricants.

Clean Room

Clean Room
Photo credit: NASASupports a Class 1000 Precision Clean Room with certified technicians. Our processes include VC, VC-UV, VC-HS, Precision levels 50-1000 and Non Voltaire Residue (NVR). Our cleaning media is ultrapure DI water and HFE 7100.

Non-Metallic Capabilities

Models and plastics department consists of 2 autoclaves for curing epoxies and resins up to 7' x 16' with temperatures to 600F and pressure/vacuum to 30psi, 4 ovens up to 5'x8'x6' for bake outs with temperature up to 600F, and 2 paint booths as large as 256 sq. ft. in capacity. Numerous hand and bench tools and trained technicians are available to support R&D, engineering development, flight and non flight projects.