I recently had the opportunity to visit CPI Aerostructures, a company that is much different from those we typically cover in Modern Machine Shop. CPI is not a machine shop, and it doesn’t machine discrete parts. Instead, it sources those parts from a network of suppliers and fashions them into subassemblies for aircraft at its facility in Long Island, New York.
But although its business looks different, CPI has the same need for custom tooling—fixtures, check gages, jigs, etc.—that machine shops do. Like many machining facilities, it has an in-house toolroom with manual machining and welding equipment to help produce that tooling.
