When the part your platform needs does not exist in any catalogue, our engineers sit down with yours — and design, qualify and manufacture it in Retford, then keep making it for as long as your platform is in service.
An Icon engineer — not a remote sales hub — comes back to you within two working days.
Most polymer components are chosen from a catalogue. On a certified platform, a part that almost fits is a risk: a failed fire test, a leak path at altitude, a late delivery that stops a build line, a supplier that exits with twenty years of service life still to run.
Where a standard part gives up
The sector expects up to three attempts per seal. Each failure is weeks of repeat testing while the engine programme waits.
A leak path, a weight penalty, or an in-service issue that surfaces on the aircraft instead of on the rig.
A late hose or duct stops a build as surely as a late engine — for a part that cost a fraction of anything around it.
A supplier exits or a compound is withdrawn. The part is obsolete, and the platform needs a redesign and a full requalification.
Small on the bill of materials. Enormous on the risk register. Discovered at qualification, it is a repeat test measured in weeks. Discovered in service, it is a redesign, a requalification, and a name on the programme review.
How we engineer it instead ↓
When standard components cannot meet the full requirement. Each product is the output of an engineering programme: designed for one place on one platform, qualified to its standard, and made for as long as that platform flies, drives or runs.
Air distribution and environmental-control ducting formed to almost any geometry, single run or multi-branch, with seals built into the duct where it removes joints and leak paths.
Explore flexible ducting →Wing fillet, pylon, fairing and access seals, plus engine and pylon fire seals approved to AC 20-135 — fabric-reinforced silicone, fluorosilicone or neoprene, with inserts where the seal carries load.
Explore seals →Flexiflo™ air-to-air refuelling hoses with Braidlock® couplings, G-suit and oxygen hoses, and high-pressure and high-temperature assemblies built in your dimensions rather than the nearest catalogue size.
Explore hose systems →Precision mouldings, rubber-to-metal bonded parts, FlexiSeal™ brake and landing-gear seals, and tank wheels and running gear in ENDURANCE® compounds for tracked and armoured platforms.
Explore moulded components →Bellows and expansion joints, RF and EMI absorbers, hand fabrications, replacement parts for obsolete components, and compounds formulated from scratch when nothing on the market survives the environment.
Explore specialty solutions →We know a seal is a fraction of your bill of materials — and all of your risk if it fails a fire test. So there is no remote sales hub between you and our factory. Your enquiry goes to an engineer. Your design review happens with the people who will make the part. And when you want to see the rigs, the tooling and the shop floor in Retford, you are welcome to.
Face to face with the engineers who design, qualify and make your part — from the first conversation to the life of the platform.
Send the specification, the envelope and the environment — or simply describe the problem. An Icon engineer responds within two working days with a first view on feasibility, materials and what it will take. In Retford, at your site, or on a call.
Design and FEA. Compound selection or development. 3D-printed tooling and samples in days, not months. Fire, thermal, pressure and environmental testing on rigs built to replicate your service conditions, then formal qualification and first-article inspection to AS9102.
Industrialised production and repeat supply for as long as the platform is in service — with full traceability, obsolescence planned rather than discovered, and an engineer who still picks up the phone in year twenty.
Every part we make fits one place on one platform. Find the application closest to yours, or bring us the gap and we will show you what we would build.
Ducting that fits the envelope you actually have, with fewer joints to leak.
Explore →Aerodynamic, access and bay seals that close a gap without adding load paths or fastener count.
Explore →Engine and pylon seals that hold at 1,093°C for 15 minutes under vibration, airflow and pressure.
Explore →Air-to-air refuelling hoses for probe-and-drogue and boom systems, at altitude, in any climate.
Explore →Crush-resistant oxygen, breathing and G-suit hoses with comms leads built into the hose wall.
Explore →Road wheels, track pads and bushes engineered against heat, abrasion and chip-and-chunk.
Explore →Across the industry a seal can need up to three attempts to comply. When we developed engine fire seals for a major aero-engine OEM, every seal passed at the first attempt — each holding a 1,093°C flame for 15 minutes under vibration, airflow and pressure differentials, on rigs we designed ourselves.
Weight, joints, qualification risk and twenty years of supply are all decided at the design stage. Bring us in then, and the polymer components become the one thing nobody mentions in the programme review.
Designed to your envelope, environment and standard, then made to the same specification for as long as the platform is in service. Obsolescence planned, not discovered.
In-house compounds, in-house rigs, first-article inspection to AS9102. The schedule stays protected and your name stays safe on the specification.
Design reviews with the people on the shop floor, in Retford or at your site. Straight answers on feasibility, lead time and cost before you commit.
See it for yourself. Customers who visit tend to decide on the shop floor. Come and see the rigs, the tooling and the people who would make your part — in Retford, England.
Schedule a visit to the Icon facilityTell us the platform, the envelope and the environment — or just describe the problem. An Icon engineer will come back to you within two working days.
Retford, England, or your site · No remote sales hub · NDA on request