[1]When we say “Billy Boat [2]” you undoubtedly think about exhaust systems, and we can’t blame you – the company has carved out a substantial portion of the market for itself, especially when it comes to late model Corvettes. As a matter of fact, just a few short weeks ago we showed you what they’ve been concentrating on lately – exhaust plumbing for the brand-new C7 Corvette. [3]
But if you imagine the world of B&B started at the header flange and ended at the exhaust tip, you’d be mistaken. Here at the 2013 PRI Show, we got a glimpse into the broader world of B&B Fabrication & Machine [4], the “behind the scenes” specialty manufacturing division of Billy Boat. The company has two decades of experience in contract manufacturing and aerospace machining, and the range of different components they can (and do) produce is vast.
[5]You’d probably guess that a company that manufactures exhaust systems has some tube bending machinery, but you might not expect to see five different kinds of CNC lathes, five varieties of milling machines, ten total CNC Swiss turning stations of four separate types (we had to look that one up [6], actually – it’s a very high tolerance lathing method), two water jet cutting machines, and a robotic welding station.
The end result is the capability of manufacturing just about any kind of high-precision part you can imagine, to aerospace quality and traceability standards. And here you thought they just bent stainless steel tubing…