First Part for Neuron

Production of the unmanned Neuron craft has just begun at Tjust Mekaniska in Sweden. In the giant CNC machine sits a large piece of aluminium with the carved outlines of the craft clearly visible.>> Tjust Mekaniska in Vstervik is a small company with approximately 50 employees and a turnover of about SEK 50 million. They have been commissioned by Saab to manufacture eight aluminium ribs making up the frame for the Neuron hull.>> "We have a long-standing partnership and great confidence in the company. We've never manufactured such large machine parts in one piece and Tjust Mekaniska has invested in a large computer-controlled milling machine, a CNC machine, to cope with this project," says Peter Svensson, project manager for Neuron at the short-series production at Saab Aerostructures.>> Tjust Mekaniska has a number of large Swedish industries as customers and they focus on short-series production and lego production.>> "The Neuron project is a real challenge for us and we have invested a great deal to become involved. Our goal is to get the most demanding jobs so that we will evolve as a company," explains CEO Anders Walln.>> High-speed processing>> A newly constructed hall on the company's premises houses the large German CNC machine that covers almost the entire hall from floor to ceiling. Programmer Ola Johansson and operator Patrik Karlsson are alongside the machine.>> "Much of it is new to us. All the drawings are 3D drawings, which we then process for programming," says Ola Johansson.>> The piece of aluminium that sits in the machine is more than four metres long, one and a half metres wide and twelve centimetres thick.