Irvine Firm’s Wall Is Worth Weight in Gold

We still can’t make gold from base metals, but at defense and aerospace contractor Tolo Inc. they’re getting pretty good at turning skilled workers, high-tech machine tools and aluminum into big bucks.

The Irvine-based company several years ago developed and patented a method of machining aluminum to dramatically reduce its weight while increasing its strength. Now it is using its Grid-Lock technology to create what could be a $200-million-plus market in space-making rigid safety barriers for cargo planes.

Federal aviation rules require cargo planes flown by carriers like Federal Express Corp. and United Parcel Service of America Inc. to have a barrier between the cargo area and the cockpit to protect the crew if a cargo pallet breaks loose and starts sliding around.

The barrier in use today is a high-strength cargo net that does the job but requires a 5-foot safety zone of empty space between the net and the cockpit to allow for stretching.

Before it was acquired this summer by Boeing Co., McDonnell Douglas Corp. went to Tolo--a longtime supplier--and asked the company president, John Terranova, and his designers to come up with a system to replace the stretchy net with a lightweight, solid bulkhead that would free up the 5-foot safety zone.

It seems that Federal Express, which uses a lot of McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and MD-11 jets in its cargo fleet, had started ‘round-the-world service and wanted to use the space for bunk, seating and food preparation areas for the crew. The extra 5 feet can also be used for more freight on shorter flights, increasing each plane’s revenue-generating cargo space.

Tolo’s bulkhead is a 1,450-pound sandwich of aluminum sheeting over an interlocking interior grid system, and had has been tested to withstand up to 200,000 pounds of force at 9 Gs. That’s engineer-speak. Terranova says, for the equivalent of a 200,000-pound cargo pallet breaking loose and slamming into the bulkhead as the plane came to an abrupt halt.

Fed Ex, Terranova said, has ordered 31 of the bulkheads--an order worth more than $6 million to Tolo--and has said it intends to buy 60 more in a second round to completely outfit its DC-10 and MD-11 fleet. The Tennessee-based carrier also has more than 150 Boeing 757s that could use the solid bulkheads, said Terranova.

“And Fed Ex isn’t the largest [air] cargo carrier,” he says. “With UPS and the other carriers, this has the potential of being a product that will be worth several hundred million dollars to Tolo over the next few years.”

John O’Dell covers major Orange County corporations and manufacturing for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-5831 and at [email protected]