After winning the $18.9-billion contract to build the Joint Strike
Fighter (JSF), Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in the summer of 2002
placed a $12.3-million order with Ingersoll Milling Machine Co. for
custom-made machine tools to produce parts for the stealthy tactical
aircraft. As of April of this year, Lockheed Martin had paid Ingersoll
more than half the contract price but it still had no machines
delivered. Then came the jarring news. Ingersoll had shut down.
A giant in the machine tool field, Ingersoll was one of five companies
in the world capable of manufacturing sophisticated machinery used in
the production of both metal and composite parts for airframes and
engines. The Rockford, Ill., factory had sent signals of possible
trouble in recent years when it sold off several divisions. But the
cessation of operations came as a surprise that sent a shock wave
through the machine tool and aerospace industries.
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The Ingersoll bankruptcy that put a kink in the JSF program
underscores how an upheaval in a critical industry such as machine tools
can threaten the processes of aerospace manufacturing. In the U.S.
Congress, concerns over the loss of manufacturing expertise have spurred
a new and stricter version of the "Buy America" movement. The House
version of the Fiscal 2004 defense authorization bill contains a host of
guidelines and restrictions aiming to protect U.S. industry. The Bush
administration, the Pentagon and industry are split on the effectiveness
of the legislation (AW&ST July 7, p. 23).
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Rich Carter, Manzullo's aide from his Rockford office, said the
Ingersoll bankruptcy robs the U.S. of a company that has performed a
critical skill. Ingersoll manufactured a variety of traditional milling
and drilling machinery and the machines that produce composites of two
general types. Composites are produced by a "tape laying" system or by
fiber placement. The former is used for flat, lightly contoured parts
such as wings and stabilizers. Fiber placement parts are more complex
and include the fuselage and engine cowlings and other such cylindrical
shapes.
Carter said the U.S. now has only one company that can produce both
kinds of machinery. "And that could affect the future of our weaponry,"
he said. "If something happened to Cincinnati Machine, we wouldn't have
the capability to do that kind of work ourselves."
The machine tool sector has averaged $36 billion in annual worldwide
sales in 2000 and 2001, according to data collected by the Assn. for
Manufacturing Technology (AMT) in McLean, Va. The association represents
320 U.S. companies, each a manufacturer of tools known in the trade as
computer numerical control (CNC) machines. Since 1999, the number of
association members has dropped from approximately 400. In the last 18
months, 30 U.S. companies have liquidated, filed for bankruptcy or been
sold, said Patrick W. McGibbon, vice president for industry marketing
services for AMT.
The U.S. formerly represented a $5-billion piece of the $36-billion
total sales. In 2002, the U.S. either produced or purchased equipment
overseas valued at $2.9 billion. China, the newcomer in the machine tool
field, either built or acquired machine tools valued at $5.7 billion.
George Rathke, ATM's vice president for international trade, said the
Chinese produced tools by themselves that represented half of the
$5.7-billion total. The rest was imported.
Machine tool employment in the U.S. has been in steady decline for more
than two decades. The peak was reached in 1980 with a workforce of
110,000. In 1998, the most recent peak sales year, employees already had
declined to 61,000. Currently, there are 41,000 in the workforce.
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