Ventec Europe continues FOD-avoidance investment programme

The company's epoxy prepreg cutting and slitting department has been brought to the same standard of clean-room operation as already established for its polyimide prepreg. The latest Pasquato slitter-sheeter installation has been specifically designed to aerospace standards to eliminate the possibility of debris and dust entrapment. As in the polyimide department, production procedure is that once a prepreg roll is transferred from cold store to slitting machine, the whole roll is slit so that there is no backwards-and-forwards traffic of part-rolls. And the prepreg comes out of the clean room in the form of sealed aluminised packs for delivery straight to the customer’s lay-up room. Mark Goodwin, Ventec’s Chief Operating Officer for Europe and USA commented: “This represents the latest stage of a structured investment programme and demonstrates our commitment to reducing FOD risk for our mil/aero customer base and managing delivered quality to the highest standards. The next stage will be the installation of Class 6 clean room canopies over each of our slitter-sheeter machines, to be completed within the next few weeks, as part of our support for the European Space Agency’s campaign to drive up cleanliness standards to the new IPC-4101-D Appendix A.”