Bombardier Installs Cleanroom At El Marques, Queretaro
Parque Industrial El Marques
Reported by FlightGlobal.com
“Bombardier has broken ground on a new factory at its Mexico Manufacturing Centre in Queretaro, which will be dedicated to producing composite components for the Learjet 85.
The centre’s vice-president operations Real Gervais says the new 18,580m2 (200,000ft2) composite factory is now scheduled to open in March 2010. Bombardier originally planned to open the factory in November, but Gervais says the start of construction was pushed back from April to September as part of a company-wide cost-cutting initiative.
To compensate for the later opening, Bombardier has shifted initial composite work for the Learjet 85 to its factory at El Marques Industrial Park, which is at another site in Queretaro. Composite work at El Marques began in September following the installation of a clean room and oven. An initial batch of just over 50 Mexican operators, who were sent to Montreal earlier this year for composite training, is now working on Learjet 85 coupons, demonstrator slabs and test articles.
Learjet 85 vice-president Ralph Acs says work on the first production aircraft, starting with the composite fuselage, will begin when the new Queretaro factory opens in March. He says the idea is to gradually build Queretaro’s composite experience using the El Marques facility to ensure the manufacturing centre is ready to begin production as soon as the new factory opens.
“We need to start getting some experience here and proving out processes. That’s why we commissioned the El Marques facility,” Acs says. “We need to get that up and running and get people from Montreal to slowly come back down so when the new building comes online the processes are proven and the technology ready.”
The Learjet 85 programme is groundbreaking for Mexico as it represents the first composite project for the country’s budding aerospace industry. Queretaro was able to win Learjet 85 work by committing to offering a composite course and open a composite lab at the National Aeronautic University of Queretaro (UNAQ), a new school which opened in January adjacent to the aerospace park.”
Article written by Brendan Sobie for www.flightglobal.com
To read the full article please visit : http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/10/20/333497/mexicos-massive-expansion.html
