Meet the Team: The voestalpine Roll Forming Corporation aerospace experts

In 2022, voestalpine Roll Forming Corporation in Shelbyville, Kentucky, USA, celebrates its 75th anniversary as a supplier to the aerospace industry. RFC Sales Representative Becky Holmes tells us more on the company’s activities, the recipe for success and the people behind the business.

Many of the most renowned aviation companies rely on voestalpine Roll Forming Corporation (RFC) Aerospace, headquartered in Shelbyville, Kentucky, USA. RFC manufactures lightweight, durable aerospace structural components that meet the highest safety and quality standards: from raw materials to formed and contoured parts made of soft and hard metals, precision machining, as well as titanium and laser welding to ready-to-install components. Moreover, RFC is already paving the way to shift the company’s focus increasingly from profile rolling to precision machining.

World champion knowledge

One team member who knows the aerospace industry like the back of her hand is Becky Holmes: Sales Representative and part of the RFC family for 23 years. Becky started in Accounting and Finance in 1999 and over time has dived deeper into customer service. Today, she enjoys the varied yet challenging work with “her” aviation customers. “It is incredibly important to build and maintain close relationships.

Knowing how enormously high the standards and demands are in the quality controls for aviation parts certainly gives Becky Holmes a good feeling on her air travels.

Brief introduction: Becky Holmes

Becky H., RFC-Sales Representative

• Position: Sales Representative
• Part of RFC since: 1999
• Currently working on: Quoting existing customers and helping team with new product launches.
• This is what makes working in the aerospace business special to me: In Aerospace every day is like taking new flight full of new challenges and opportunities to build our future.

By the way: Becky Holmes (then Becky Kemper) not only has world champion expertise in the aviation industry. In 1998, she also was women’s world horseshoe pitching champion.

The recipe for success

Shelbyville is a small town in the Louisville metropolitan area. The fact that innovative aircraft components are highly technologically manufactured in this rather rural environment is surprising, as Becky Holmes knows to report: “People are often amazed when I tell them about my work and initially believe that entire airplanes roll out of our production halls,” Becky Holmes says with a smile. The fact that RFC has been a proven partner to the aviation industry for decades is made possible not only by the latest technologies, machines and materials, but above all by the spirit of the RFC aviation team.

Curious? Get to know two more of the RFC aviation team-members:

• Name: Justin W.
• Position: Senior Process Engineer
• Part of RFC since: 2011
• Currently working on: Machining of aerospace products on a 5-axis machining center.
• Working in the aerospace industry is special to me because: I have two family members that are professional pilots. Knowing that the parts we make may someday be on a plane one of them flies is pretty neat. It is also interesting to see the industry from two different perspectives.

• Name: Susanne Baldwin
• Position: Senior Quality Specialist
• Part of RFC since: 1998
• Currently working on: In the quality department, focusing on new product launches.
• To me, this RFC aerospace product is most fascinating: The Leading edge abrasion strip for a helicopter. I’ve been involved with this product since early 2000, working with the customer’s on a new product design, developing and maintaining close customer relationships, detailed inspection plans and methods of inspection. The part was in development stages for 10.5 years, until it was successfully trialed and qualified through our customer as a full production part in 2011. The process of manufacturing the part is tedious, time consuming and often times quite a challenge. I have family members which are in pilot training and knowing that I had a hand in producing a flight critical part for something they may pilot, gives me great pride.

A great history and an even greater future

On August 20, 2022, voestalpine Roll Forming Corporation celebrated its 75th anniversary. It has always been a reliable partner and supplier to the aerospace industry. Roll Forming Corporation was founded in 1947 with one location, one roll forming line and 3 employees. Today it is part of the Metal Forming Division and operates 32 roll forming lines and around 80 adjacent technologies and processes. The company employs approximately 440 people in three states. As part of the anniversary celebrations, voestalpine Roll Forming Corporation announced plans for further expansion of the company.

#voestalpineonboard – About the aerospace focus

voestalpine has been an established supplier to the aviation industry for around 100 years. The Group manufactures extremely complex, highly durable and safety-critical components for renowned customers worldwide, so that practically every aircraft flies with a piece of voestalpine. At the restart after the severe turbulence of the Covid-19 pandemic, the company provides insights into the very special (aero)dynamics of this business area.