Tight-tolerance cutting for the aerospace industry and beyond is provided by two Jet Edge High Rail Gantry waterjet systems, for Pegasus Northwest, a Boeing-certified abrasive waterjet cutting firm

Pegasus Northwest is a Boeing-certified abrasive waterjet cutting service company, located in Kent, that specializes in tight-tolerance cutting for the aerospace industry and beyond. Armed with two Jet Edge High Rail Gantry waterjet systems, Pegasus Northwest has established itself as one of the most accurate waterjet shops in the industry by using only diamond orifices and the highest grade garnet abrasive on the market, said Ron Palstring, Pegasus’ longtime plant manager.

The company’s reputation is born out of its many years of experience meeting stringent aerospace industry performance requirements for quality, service, on-time delivery and documentation.

Pegasus Northwest got its start in 1970, cutting decorative panel blanks for Boeing aircraft using a shear and panel saw.

This niche service was the heart of the small company’s business until 1997, when Boeing nudged it toward becoming one of the Pacific Northwest’s leading waterjet service companies by requiring it to expand beyond blanks and produce final parts utilizing CNC programming.

After researching CNC cutting options, Pegasus Northwest decided abrasive waterjet was the best method for cutting stacks of the phenolic resin panels, while providing the flexibility to cut other parts from virtually any material, Palstring recalled.

‘It was important that we stack our material for efficiency,’ he noted.
‘Other cutting methods prohibited stacking and cutting multiple layers deep.’ Pegasus researched several waterjet systems before deciding on a 12X14′ Jet Edge High Rail Gantry with an oversized tank (then manufactured by Chukar Industries) that could accommodate four sheet goods loaded at once.

They powered the system with a 50-horsepower Jet Edge intensifier pump and equipped the gantry with a 72′ spreader bar with two abrasivejet cutting heads and two pneumatic drill units mounted next to each cutting head.

The company uses the pneumatic drills to pre-pierce materials that are prone to delaminating.

It did not take long for word to get out about the company’s new waterjet system, and before long, Pegasus branched beyond the aerospace market and began doing job shop work for other industries, Palstring said.

‘Everyone around us found out about our waterjet and they would drop off a PO and blank material at our door,’ he said.

‘That honed us in to trying to attach other markets.

Today, 80 percent of our business is aerospace contractor work and 20 percent is miscellaneous.’ In 2000, Pegasus Northwest needed a second waterjet system to keep up with demand.

They purchased a custom-designed 12X8′ Jet Edge High Rail Gantry with a 72-inch spreader bar, four cutting heads and one pneumatic drill, and powered it with a 150-horsepower Jet Edge intensifier pump.

Since installing its waterjet systems, Pegasus Northwest has grown from three employees to 25, and has moved from an 8,000 square-foot leased facility to a 30,000 square-foot modern manufacturing facility that it owns outright, Palstring noted.

The company has eight waterjet operators and runs its systems 100 hours a week.

In addition to its Jet Edge systems, Pegasus Northwest also owns three CNC routers, a 48′ manual mill and a manual lathe.

It offers its customers material valued up to $20,000 on net-30 terms and has its own enclosed curtain-type delivery truck.

The company is D-9100, AQS and BQS certified, and is currently pursuing AS-9100 certification.

It is Boeing rated for 100 percent on-time delivery and 100 percent acceptability.

In 1999, Pegasus Northwest received Boeing’s prestigious Presidents Award for Supplier of the Year as well as Boeing’s Continuous Cost Improvement Program Award.

Palstring attributes his company’s success to the owner’s willingness to buy the best equipment, being good at what it does and following detailed procedures.

‘Our niche is tight tolerance,’ Palstring said.

‘We hold tolerances on a large cutting envelope that no one else can achieve with their waterjet cutting machines.

We hold +/- .005′ on 1′ titanium and aluminum parts for a couple of our customers.

We will do positive and negative push-through tile inlays with virtually no grout lines.

We use diamond orifices and the best garnet and we cut faster than anybody.

We maximize every inch of the table with sheets that are 12 feet long.

Having an envelope that size allows us to cut parts in one day.

It saves time and materials and we pass that savings on to customers.

It’s a value-added service at no added cost to the customer.’ Pegasus Northwest uses its waterjet systems to cut numerous materials, including epoxy resin, fiberglass, acrylic with foreign materials imbedded into it, 8′ thick titanium, glass, aluminum, stainless steel, phenolic, shim stock and up to 12-inch thick mild steel.

Some of its more challenging projects include cutting 9-inch-thick titanium billets (mtl market value $26,000 each) for the Boeing 787 and cutting sphere sink bowls for its sister company, Lumicor, which manufactures architectural panels, sinks and countertops out of a unique patented resin material.

To cut the sink bowls, Pegasus tilted the waterjet head and made feed rate controlled tooling to spin the sink bowl blank.

Palstring said his company decided to buy its Jet Edge waterjet systems based on their accuracy and repeatability over a large work envelope.

The Jet Edge systems also had several key features Pegasus was looking for, including a CNC machine designed to last in the waterjet cutting environment, multiple head capability, a drill head fixture, Main Z and independent Z control, and a ball-screw design that features a moving screw and stationary ball which prevents backlash, allowing the machine to cut round holes and hold tight tolerances.

‘I’ve ran virtually every single waterjet and Jet Edge was always the most accurate and durable machine out there,’ Palstring said.

‘Jet Edge is the best engineered waterjet machine.

The biggest difference is that the other machines would need to be recalibrated daily and would just lose themselves.

Now we are set up for biannual and annual recalibration.

It saves thousands of man hours not having to recalibrate daily.’ Palstring noted that Jet Edge’s High Rail Gantries are very accessible for loading and unloading, and praised Jet Edge’s pump for its ease of maintenance and reliability.

‘You’re able to access the table from 360 degrees,’ he said.

‘It is very easy to load.

You don’t have anything in front of you and the cutting heads go beyond the catcher tank.

The height of the table is perfect, the Jet Edge pumps are easy to work on and they are the best design out there.

Replacing the seals takes a half-hour max.’ Palstring also praised Jet Edge’s parts and service department.

‘Jet Edge has well-written documentation and friendly technical employees to help troubleshoot,’ he said.

‘Jet Edge’s service is excellent.

We’ve always had someone call us back and we always receive correct parts and quantities and 24-hour on-time delivery of parts, and they will let us know if we don’t need any particular parts in a parts kit.’

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