Swales Aerospace is rising to new heights with the unveiling of a new 34,000 square foot production and office facility at its aerospace campus in Beltsville, Md. Announcement of the new complex was made by Tom Wilson, Chief Executive Officer, on the eve of the “meeting of the decade for space professionals” at World Space Congress 2002 in Houston, Texas.
“Our expansion, which includes a 28 ft. high bay area, represents a doubling of our capability to design, fabricate and test heat pipe and loop heat pipe systems for the global satellite industry,” said Wilson.
“We now occupy more than 220,000 sq. ft. of offices, design centers, laboratories and manufacturing areas in Beltsville, which is believed to be the largest complex of its kind in support of the commercial satellite industry in the state of Maryland.”
In addition to the high bay area, other key building features include temperature controlled paint booths, an anodizing and iridite coating capability, a specialty-machining center, an ISO 9001 certified calibration laboratory, a class 100K clean room for multi-layer insulation systems, and associated office space.
The new facility complements two existing Swales facilities; a 22,000 sq. ft. design, test and fabrication facility for flight quality ammonia and cryogenic capillary pumped loops, heat pipes and related thermal management hardware systems, and a 23,000 sq. ft. facility for fabrication of structural components and composites.
Installed equipment also includes ovens, autoclaves, test labs and facilities for controlled preparation of adhesives and compounds for bonding and conformal coatings.
Now in its 24th year, Swales has achieved an enviable performance record in providing mission essential services and equipment to the International Space Station, Hubble Space Telescope, and dozens of space shuttle missions, instruments and payloads.
An employee-owned business, Swales Aerospace provides state-of-the-art engineering solutions and spacecraft, as well as a broad range of structural and thermal management systems for the global satellite industry.
The company posted annual revenues of $140 million during 2001 and employs more than 900 aerospace professionals in offices in Maryland, Virginia, California, Florida and Texas.
