THERMAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION COMPLETES A LARGE AUTOCLAVE SYSTEM FOR HITCO CARBON COMPOSITES

Thermal Equipment Corporation (TEC) recently completed the manufacture and installation of a very large 20’ diameter by 50’ long aerospace quality Autoclave System for HITCO Carbon Composites in Gardena, CA.

“TEC is honored to have worked closely with HITCO as the supplier for this system, which is critical to their continued growth in the production of AeroStructures”, said Lee Courtney, President of TEC. “We look forward to continuing to work with HITCO on their future expansion plans as well.” This 20' diameter Autoclave System is the largest in HITCO's Autoclave collection and adds HITCO to a list of only a handful of companies worldwide with systems of this size.

This latest HITCO system represents the second installation for TEC of this diameter installed in 2009. This continues to demonstrate that TEC, with more installations of 20' diameter and above than all of our competitors in the world combined, is the right choice for these larger systems.

TEC’s manufacturing facility is located in Los Angeles. However, this Autoclave System was built on-site by a TEC field crew at HITCO’s facility in Gardena, due to its large size and shipping limitations.

TEC is the world’s leader in the design and supply of large Aerospace Autoclave Systems*. We have designed and manufactured more 15-foot diameter and larger autoclaves than all other manufacturers combined worldwide. Due to TEC's unparalleled experience, we recently provided Spirit AeroSystems with the first 30-foot, working diameter system, under budget and on time.

TEC also designed and supervised the construction and installation of two large Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Autoclave Systems in Japan for the Boeing 787 Program, making TEC the largest supplier of 787 Autoclave Systems world-wide.

TEC has been successfully designing and building large Autoclave Systems for nearly 40 years. As pioneers in the industry, Thermal Equipment Corporation published Autoclave Cure Systems* in the ASM Engineering Handbook 20 years ago, most of which remains relevant to Autoclave Systems today "It's What We Do", and we do it better than anyone else in the Autoclave Industry world-wide.