Founded in 1999 as an advanced manufacturing innovator, Quickstep has since grown to become Australia’s leading carbon fibre composites manufacturer.
Operating its Aerospace Manufacturing division out of Bankstown Airport in Sydney, Quickstep has invested close to A$30 million to-date on its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility there. This has enabled the company to build an order book now exceeding $120m and servicing some of the world’s largest aerospace/defence organisations, including the US Department of Defense, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Thales and BAE Systems.
Quickstep's managing director, David Marino notes the challenges and opportunities that come with rapid growth.
“Quickstep has certainly grown significantly over the past decade, and the pace of growth continues to accelerate,” he begins. “We entered our flagship manufacturing agreement in late 2009, signing a deal with Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman for the manufacture of composite doors and panels for the international F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme. In 2012, we delivered our first JSF parts ahead of schedule. As we continued to prove our capabilities on a global stage, our JSF role expanded, in parallel with us winning a number of new contracts with other leading aerospace and defence companies.
“Today, we manufacture a range of composite parts for the JSF aircraft including lower side skins, maintenance access panels, fuel tank covers and lower skins. Over the 20-year programme life, we project to deliver to in excess of 36,000 parts under a contract valued at A$700m with Northrop Grumman. This year, we expect significant growth of JSF parts, on our path to peak volumes over the next couple of years, and maintaining full rate production through to well beyond 2030.”
Telling tails
Last year, Quickstep completed qualification and commenced production of composite parts for the JSF Vertical Tail programme, supplying vertical tail spars, skins, and fairings to Marand Precision Engineering for assembly and supply to BAE Systems in the UK, under a contract valued at A$139m sales over the programme life. Quickstep supplied 32 vertical tail parts in FY16, and these volumes are also expected to ramp-up in line with JSF production increases.
Aside from the JSF programme, Quickstep delivers wing flaps for Lockheed's C-130J Super Hercules aircraft, the “most successful military aircraft ever” according to Forbes business magazine.
A substantial programme of capital investment at Bankstown is now nearing completion to deliver higher levels of JSF production and automation for C-130J production. As a result of the rapid growth, Quickstep has initiated a recruitment drive.
“We require an additional 80 direct staff over the next two years, which would take our head count to beyond 250 staff,” adds Marino. “With an expanding, highly skilled workforce, advanced manufacturing equipment, expertise and experience, we remain unrivalled by any other independent advanced composites manufacturer in the nation.
“Whilst Australia might be regarded as a 'small pond' by global standards, we remain an important part of the JSF success. Every JSF aircraft has Quickstep components on them. Quickstep competes and wins against peers across the globe, underlined by the fact that 90% of our revenues are generated from international clients.
“Besides people, our competitive advantage resides in our innovative technologies. We have developed our Qure machine which cures components faster using fluid heat transfer, and we are investing further to increase Qure’s rate capability to meet the production volume requirements of the automotive, transport and other industrial product sectors. Our resin spray transfer (RST) technology automates the application of resin to fibre to produce carbon fibre panels, which can be painted with limited preparation.”
These technologies and automotive opportunities are being progressed at the company's Waurn Ponds facility in Geelong, Australia, part of Australia's leading carbon fibre R&D hub incorporating skilled researchers, laboratories and industry networks. The facility houses Quickstep's global R&D centre, automotive production and new technology development activities, and is already delivering automotive parts for Ford and Thales Australia, as well as a range of carbon composite parts for Micro-X’s portable x-ray device.
“Our vision is clear - to become a global leader in composite manufacturing solutions,” Marino concludes. “With 2017 set to be our busiest yet, we look forward to making substantial progress to achieving that goal.”
