Industries · Aerospace
Machining for aerospace and flight programs
BELL Machine Works machines prototypes and production hardware for flight programs: launch vehicles and propulsion, satellites, spacecraft and lunar programs, avionics and aircraft interiors. Fluid-line raceways, cable management, connector hardware and cryogenic-service plastics, from our ITAR-registered shop in Gilroy, California.
Programs usually outgrow their prototype shop. Ours is built so they don't have to: no minimum order and same-day rush quoting at the breadboard stage, and ITAR registration, GCC High data handling, lot traceability and first article inspection when the same part moves toward qualification. Same machines, same standard tolerance, same job numbers in the same ERP.
What we machine for flight programs
Propellant and inerting line raceways
Tube raceway clamps in PTFE for launch vehicle propulsion and pressurant lines: matched top and bottom halves that have to align around varying tube diameters, across a multi-part family. PTFE is chemically inert to propellants, pressurants and solvents and serviceable from cryogenic through roughly 500 °F. It is also soft, cold-flows and burrs relentlessly, which is why it is ours to machine and not everyone's.
Cable management for satellite and spacecraft harnesses
Cable clamps and cable saddles in polycarbonate and Delrin for satellite buses, payloads and spacecraft wiring harnesses, machined as left and right pairs so they close square on the harness.
Connector hardware
Micro-D connector covers for avionics and spacecraft electronics, in aluminum, electroless nickel plated, laser engraved with part and lot number per MIL-STD-130 down to 0.035" character height.
Aircraft structural and interior hardware
Collar assembly sets in 2024 aluminum: matched left, right and top pieces machined as complete sets. The same aluminum work serves aircraft interiors, cabin furniture, seat tracks and avionics mounting.
One shop, four stages
From breadboard to flight
A program needs speed early and documentation late. Most shops offer one or the other, so the program changes suppliers midway: new fixtures, new first articles, new qualification, and a part that measured fine at the old shop and now doesn't. Here is what changes at each stage, and what doesn't.
| Stage | What you need | What changes at BELL |
|---|---|---|
| Concept and breadboard | One part, this week, and honest feedback | No minimum order. Rush quoted same day. DFM review in every quote. |
| Engineering development | Repeatability, and a supplier who remembers the last revision | Digital traveler per job, ProShop ERP as system of record. A part run eighteen months ago is answerable from the job number. |
| Qualification and test | Traceability that holds up in a review | Material certs and lot traceability on every order. FAI on request with CMM data on critical features. |
| Flight | Export control and an unbroken chain | ITAR registered, CAGE 18MB0. Technical data in GCC High on U.S. soil under U.S.-person administration. Finishing through an ITAR-registered house so the chain doesn't break at the anodizer. |
Nothing in the left column requires a different shop. Nothing in the right column requires a longer lead time.
Documentation
Material certs and lot traceability on every order. Digital traveler with in-process checks. First article inspection on request with CMM data on critical features. ITAR registered with the U.S. Department of State, Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, CAGE 18MB0, with drawings and models held in a Microsoft GCC High tenant on U.S. soil under U.S.-person administration. Full compliance posture on the Capabilities page.