Mace Aviation designs and fabricates composite and metallic tooling for aerospace manufacturing programs. We build everything from low-cost prototype tools to high-temperature production tooling rated for autoclave cure cycles. Our tooling team works directly with our fabrication engineers. That means tools are designed with the manufacturing process in mind from the first line of CAD.
Tooling designed by the same team that designed the part is tooling that works. Mace Aviation’s engineers use CATIA V5 and SolidWorks to develop tool designs that account for material springback, cure shrinkage, demolding geometry, and fixturing requirements before a single pound of material is laid up.
For programs moving from prototype to production, we can develop a tool family that scales with your production rate. Start with a foam prototype tool for first article and progress to a durable carbon or metallic tool for production quantities.
One of the most common tooling problems is that the tool builder has never fabricated the part type the tool is designed for. At Mace Aviation, the same shop that builds the tool also builds the part. When a tool does not demold cleanly or a ply drops at a feature edge, we know because we see it in production.
Provide your material, your timeline, and your application. We'll give you a straight answer.
Tooling for defense composite structures requires documentation and traceability that standard commercial tools do not demand. Our tooling deliverables include tool design drawings, cure cycle records, and dimensional inspection data. Everything is packaged to support your program configuration documentation.
We build foam and fiberglass prototype tools, prepreg and wet layup tools, carbon fiber high-temperature tooling (250°F and 350°F systems), metallic match tools, and a range of assembly and inspection fixtures. Tool type is selected based on your production volume, cure process, and schedule requirements.
Yes. This is a significant advantage. Our tool design, fabrication, and composite/metallic manufacturing teams are in the same facility. We routinely develop the tool and produce the parts under the same program, which eliminates the handoff risk between separate tool and part vendors.
Starts with an idea...ends with a product, the sky's the limit.
Cutting edge rapid prototyping, design, engineering and production. Mace Aviation has been our go to for the last 19 years.
Director | L3Harris
Mace Aviation is a unique company that can rapidly design and develop advanced composites for the aerospace industry and then produce these products at a very competitive price. The Mace team is both innovative and practical with decades of experience in the fixed and rotary wing market. They are smart, practical and affordable and very good to work with. Mace is a top notch team.
CEO | MD Helicopters, LLC
