A Five-Axis Machine With The Right Stuff

Votaw Precision Technologies specializes in large ring-shaped parts for the aerospace, spaceflight and defense industries. Many of the parts it machines are destined for space via customers such as NASA and Blue Origin. Photo by MMS.

“One-hundred-fifty- to 300-inch diameter rings are our main staple,” says Art Talavera, VP of operations at Votaw Precision Technologies. For much of the shop’s history, it didn’t bother quoting smaller parts. Not because it couldn’t make them, but because they weren’t the most efficient use of the shop’s capabilities. However, a new VFC 3021 milling machine with a five-axis head from Trimill cut cycle times enough that smaller, higher-volume parts it previously wouldn’t have considered were now profitable, unlocking a new stream of business.

A Stronghold of American Manufacturing

Votaw was founded in 1963 as an independent shop. In 2025, the company was acquired by Cerberus Capital Management, an investment firm. The firm’s Supply Chain and Strategic Opportunities platform invests in companies such as Votaw, which do work in areas of national shortage. “They're really not looking to turn the company over,” Talavera says. “They're looking to build it and actually have a stronghold in American manufacturing.”

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The firm was interested in Votaw’s capabilities for aerospace, defense and spaceflight applications. Among the parts I saw on a tour of Votaw’s two Santa Fe Springs, California, facilities were panels for Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket and Blue Moon lander as well as Starlab, the commercial low-Earth orbit space station that is designed to take the place of the International Space Station (ISS) after its decommissioning. The shop makes parts for EELV Secondary Payload Adapters (ESPAs), which enable orbital launch vehicles to carry secondary payloads, such as satellites, as well as rings for the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft. In the quality lab, built around a massive gantry CMM, components that enable vehicles to dock to the ISS were being inspected; arms, scanners and trackers handle Votaw’s largest parts as well as in-process inspection and measurement.

These two pieces of a nozzle for a hypersonic wind tunnel are being turned together to ensure seamless blending. Each of the 16 wind tunnel pieces were blended seamlessly with the next to ensure the wind tunnel works as intended. Photo by MMS.

Back on the shop floor, operators were in the process of finishing a nozzle for a hypersonic wind tunnel. Machined in 16 pieces, the pieces must be blended seamlessly for the wind tunnel to function properly. Each component was attached to the next and the pairing turned together to create a smooth transition. “When we're done, we remove the bottom, lower the top down,” add the next part on top and blend those together, Talavera explains. A 460-inch-long mandrel on the shop floor is destined to mold rocket fuel into a starburst shape, providing more efficient burn thrust. Recent work has also included parts for the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket used in the Artemis II mission.

One thing these parts have in common is that they’re large, and large parts require large machines. Votaw’s shop floor is filled with massive open vertical turning lathes (VTLs) as large as 300 inches in diameter and portal milling machines. The tour stopped at an enormous pit in the concrete floor ranging to 10 feet deep in places. This pit was the beginning of a foundation for a new horizontal floor mill that will measure 360 inches in X and 158 inches in Y and have a variety of changeable heads including straight spindle, high-speed and rough machining options. It’s already booked for “the next year or two after it gets running,” Talavera says.

At the time of my visit, Votaw was digging a foundation for a new horizontal floor mill that will measure 360 inches in X and 158 inches in Y. Even before installation, the shop has more than a year of work scheduled for this machine. Photo by MMS.

Between the tight schedules on the machine, the amount of work put into each part and long lead times for the forgings (Talavera says the wind tunnel segments have a 36-week lead time), Votaw’s biggest challenge is making parts as quickly as possible while keeping scrap as low as possible.

One, Two, Tri

Votaw’s two Trimill machine tools stand out on a shop floor filled with enormous, open machine tools. The Trimills are large, but they’re enclosed.

Talavera first came across the brand while visiting a machine shop to look at a different brand of machine tool. “When I came across it I said, ‘Okay, what about this machine here?’” The more he saw and learned about the machine, the more he liked it, but he was hesitant because he had never heard of the brand. Votaw eventually decided to take the leap and purchase a VFC 3021 five-axis vertical milling machine. In the four years since the machine was installed, “It's been a success story,” Talavera says. “On day one we were making some good parts.”

Votaw added a VFC 3021 VMC with a five-axis rotary head from Trimill (right) four years ago. The machine’s speed, plus its stability and accuracy, have cut cycle times by more than 50% on some parts, leading the company to add a Trimill VU 4525 (left). Photo provided by Votaw.

Talavera was drawn to the machine’s accuracy and speed. The VFC 3201 has a maximum spindle speed of 24,000 RPM, exceeding the shop’s other milling machines. Fast tool changes (typically five to 12 seconds chip-to-chip) also contribute to reduced cycle times. Combined with the accuracy of the rotating five-axis head, the machine enables Votaw to maximize efficiency. “We were able to run parts much quicker,” he says.

In addition to speed, Trimill machines are designed for rigidity. The VFC 3021 has a single-piece U-shaped base that encompasses the side walls and clamping table. The base and columns are made of ultra-high-performance concrete to damp vibration and increase thermal stability. The machine also uses a “box in box” design where the crossbeam and cross-slide are enclosed, along with an internally positioned and guided ram unit, which includes the Y- and Z-axes. “The head’s got guiderails all the way around on four sides,” Talavera adds. “Some machines you’ll see are only supported in the front, where they go up and down.”

One of the machine’s early jobs was running components for the AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar (G/ATOR), an air surveillance/defense and air traffic control radar for the Marines Corps. Votaw is making and assembling the lower portion of the system, which acts as a trailer, for Saab and Northrop Grumman. It’s made from aluminum, and all components are riveted together instead of welded. “It's been so successful that the government now is allowing them to sell it to our allies too. So, there's more orders,” Talavera says. “We did about 30 so far, and there's another 70.”

The shop conducted time studies to see how the new machine’s performance compared to the previous machine used for these parts, which showed that the Trimill cut machining time by more than half. “Originally, we had slated 1,600 hours for a particular run of the parts, and we got them done here in about 700 hours,” Talavera says. “So, it knocked off almost 900 hours.”

In addition to the machine’s performance, Talavera says he appreciates its compactness. Votaw handles so many large parts that the more machines it can fit on its shop floor, the better. It’s also small enough that it did not require a dedicated foundation, like the one I saw in progress elsewhere on the shop floor. He adds that the enclosed machines help keep the area cleaner and quieter. But one of the biggest benefits is the service. “Even though this machine is from the Czech Republic, there's quick access to service,” Talavera notes. “That's always a big plus,” particularly when the machines have two years of work scheduled as soon as they’re up and running. Service is strengthened by the location of the offices of the brand’s local distributor, YCM Alliance, which are just a few buildings away from Votaw.

The Trimill’s ability to drastically reduce cycle times has enabled Votaw to take on work that’s outside its niche of large ring-shaped parts. This is one of 132 rails for Blue Origin, an example of a job that is now viable for Votaw thanks to the Trimill. Photo by MMS.
Source: MMS

The Trimill proved so successful that Votaw was in the process of installing a second Trimill at the time of my visit. This one, a VU 4525, has a working envelope of 177.16 by 98.42 by 59.05 inches and a maximum part weight of 1,433 pounds per square foot or 15,400 pounds across the table surface. It’s slightly larger than the VFC 3021, which has a working envelope of 118.11 by 82.68 by 47.24 inches and has the same weight restrictions. “It’s the same story,” Talavera jokes. “We buy a machine and we get a job which is a little bit bigger and longer.” Beyond the larger footprint, this machine has a rotary table in addition to the five-axis head.

A Foundation For Future Work

As the new machine is being installed, the operators who run the first Trimill are training the operators who will run the new Trimill. This is common at Votaw. Given its niche specialty and the difficulty of hiring experienced machinists, the company has developed a system for training in-house. “We have a lot of folks here that have been here 20 years, and we're piggybacking off their knowledge when training some of the younger folks.” Having employees ready to run the new machine will be crucial, Talavera says, given the machine’s years-long bookings even before it’s fully installed.

Some of the work on these machines is noticeably smaller than the traditionally large work Votaw does. That’s because the speed of the Trimills is making batches of smaller parts practical for the shop. Talavera points to a part near the Trimills, a rail for Blue Origin. These are used as specialized ground support equipment and integration fixtures that guide, hold, align and move large sections of rockets during assembly. “We work on a lot of bigger stuff, but we don't shy away from small stuff like this,” he says. “There’s 132 of these small components rather than a big aluminum chunk.” Of course, small is a relative term. These parts are still what many would consider to be large, but before the Trimills, these parts were too small to fit into Votaw’s niche. The Trimills have led the shop to realize that “If we get machines like this, we can knock them out quicker than anybody else,” he continues. Particularly “if the volume is correct and there’s a foundation for future work.”