Oerlikon And MT Aerospace Team Up on Additive Efficiency

The new partnership aims to provide a one-stop-shop solution for additively manufactured aerospace components.

Oerlikon AM and MT Aerospace have announced a partnership in which both companies will work together to bring efficiency and cost savings to the aerospace and defense markets.

The companies will combine their core competencies to provide an end-to-end solution to customers, with MT Aerospace focusing on system and product design within lightweight metal structures and Oerlikon focusing on additive manufacturing (AM) design and production.

“With their bundled expertise, the two partner companies cover the entire value chain from component design and manufacturing to testing and qualification,” explains Hans Steininger, CEO, MT Aerospace AG. “In this way, we can offer customers a ‘one-stop-shop’ solution from product specification to the finished, qualified part.”

A representative for Oerlikon says that together, the companies will “be able to apply the best possible design solution leveraging a wider spectrum of capabilities, thereby optimizing results in terms of needed performance or cost.” According to Oerlikon, working together will enable the companies to optimally design specific parts or components.

“Through this partnership, we look forward to continuing to lead innovation and digitization trends in the aerospace industry by accelerating and scaling up the process from concept to operational delivery,” says Michael Süss, chairman of the board of directors, Oerlikon. “To advance the application of additive manufacturing, collaboration with key players like MT Aerospace is essential. We are looking forward to bringing more additively manufactured parts to aerospace.”

This partnership is not Oerlikon’s first foray into aerospace industry collaborations. Last year, Oerlikon announced partnerships with Lufthansa Technik (LHT) and Boeing to collaborate on research into ways aerospace AM can be more easily standardized and qualified.

According to a representative for Oerlikon, the company completed its initial project with LHT to understand build-to-build variability across multiple machines using the 718 powder Oerlikon produces today in the U.S. It continues to work in close cooperation with LHT to develop specifications that will allow powder bed AM to be certified for use in MRO by the EASA, and several test and qualification projects are underway.

Meanwhile, the Boeing collaboration is going according to plan and Oerlikon’s representative says the company has “generated a significant amount of static and fatigue test data from builds across multiple machines in multiple facilities.” The test data is being used as an accelerator to start several titanium development, test and qualification activities with Oerlikon’s other aerospace customers.

With the development of aviation industry in China and the increase of the demand of civil aircraft, the demand of China's aviation materials industry is constantly released. Aviation materials and process technology are the two cornerstones of laying the manufacturing capacity of aviation industry, the biggest bottleneck restricting the development of China's civil aviation industry at present, and also one of the most extensive and potential core areas of China's aviation manufacturing industry chain towards a more open andmature process. The development of materials is of great significance to the development of aviation equipment. The aviation materials industry is undoubtedly one of themost dynamic areas for growth and investment opportunities.

Under this background, 7^th Annual China Aeronautical Materials and Process Summit 2019 which is an unmissable conference will be held on November 14^th - 15^th in Beijing.

Register your interest or get in touch with marketing@galleon.cc for more details.