Bond Technologies in Elkhart is building its largest footprint gantry machine ever for and its first rocket welding system for NASA.
“This project reflects the level of trust required to build equipment that will be used in the production of flight hardware,” said John Bosker, president of Bond Technologies, in a press release. “NASA’s requirements for performance, reliability and control are among the most demanding in manufacturing. Our team approached this as a clean-sheet design, applying years of experience in friction stir welding system development to deliver a machine capable of supporting the next generation of launch vehicles.”
The system, in the late stages of development, will be installed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. It will support the exploration of space.
“This is work our team takes seriously,” said Tim Haynie, CEO at Bond Technologies. “There is a strong sense of pride in contributing to something larger than ourselves and supporting the future of space exploration.”
Before Bond Technologies was formed, team members designed and built NASA’s vertical weld tool in 2007 in Elkhart. The tool was part of the ARES Constellation program. It was installed at the Marshall Space Flight Center in 2008, and has been used to fabricate an adapter for Artemis missions. Eight of those team members now work at Bond Technologies.
“Aerospace systems like this require a different level of engineering rigor,” Bosker said. “The control architecture, structural design, and process capability all have to perform consistently under demanding conditions. That is where Bond has focused its efforts over the years.”
Bond Technologies was formed in 2014. The company's journey started in 2003 as Transformation Technologies Inc., an engineering services company that substantially grew until 2008. TTI was bought in 2008 by Manufacturing Technology Inc., which divested the FSW technology in 2014, leading the way for Bond Techologies to take shape.
