DATRON Aero Tec Case Study

Aero-Tec Industries, based in Seminole, OK, manufactures a wide variety of internally illuminated control panels for usage in fixed wing, rotary wing and simulator applications. A large percentage of these are manufactured to be compatible with night vision goggles. Special lamp filtration and paints are required for this.

In 2005, Aero-Tec President, Charles Harbert set out to find a CNC machine capable of batch machining illuminated displays for aircraft communications gear from cast acrylic. But these were to be no ordinary displays and to produce them to exacting specifications Aero-Tec needed to find an extraordinary piece of equipment.

According to Harbert, “Encapsulated within the part are two sealed 5 volt lamp modules — one provides backlighting for UHF and the other [at the top] illuminates the display that sits behind a clear window. The lamp modules are filtered in order to be compatible with night-vision goggles worn by military pilots ... and the lettering at the bottom is non-illuminated.” The parts shown here include a completed part (minus the two wires that come out of the recessed terminals on the back) and the two other parts show the innards and illustrate the complicated steps required for manufacturing this part.