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Fabrication Flight: Metals tech - just what the doctor ordered for aircraft

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Carolyn Viss
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  Editor's note: This is the final of a three-part series on the 379th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron fabrication flight.

The 379th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron metals technology shop in Southwest Asia uses micrometers and computer-numeric controlled machinery to weld, machine, repair and manufacture aircraft and aircraft support equipment parts.

"We work together with the sheet metal and non-destructive inspections sections," said Master Sgt. Frederick Mohlhenrich, metals tech section chief. "We take big, solid blocks of material [metal] and machine them out to make brackets and other parts that are necessary for every aircraft assigned to or transient in this airfield."

They also heat treat completed parts to increase the tensile strength of the metal, he explained. "If you take a part you need and form it out of annealed metal, then heat treat it to harden it, it can handle greater stressors," Sergeant "Mo" said.

They can also be like "first responders" when an aircraft needs immediate attention.

"Sometimes, they will call us out during a tire change or maintenance action on flightline," said the sergeant from McGuire Air Force Base, N.J. "They'll discover a nick,
scratch or dent in, for instance, a hydraulic line, and we'll come to blend and smooth it out. When they change components, we do micrometer checks and close-tolerance inspections to make sure the nose landing gear or main gear is O.K. after a shimmy or vibration."

Repairing and manufacturing aircraft structural components and support brackets, we also remove damaged fasteners and perform thread repairs on aircraft parts, he said.

Often confused with sheet metal, the metals tech "side of the house" has a similar yet unique mission in the fabrication flight, but "it's pretty much a seamless effort between NDI, sheet metal, and metals tech," Sergeant Mohlhenrich said.

"You can't always order the parts you need because sometimes it takes a little too long to get them," said Senior Airman Adam Hite, who has deployed twice before to Balad Air Base, Iraq, and Manas AB, Kyrgyzstan. "So we get authorization to make it ... [which] fixes any issues we have with waiting for parts. Being here, I experience new things with different airframes to work on ...which helps increase my job knowledge and experience."

Planning to make the Air Force a career because he likes to see new places, meet new people, and wants the benefits and experiences the military offers, Airman Hite said it's good to know he can make "pretty much anything" out of a chunk of metal.

Sergeant Mohlhenrich agreed, "There are so many things we've done since we've been here. Sometimes someone comes forward and says, 'Hey we have a problem.' So we do some research with engineers; but it's up to us to come up with a solution."