Norsk and Spirit to additively manufacture structural titanium components for commercial aerospace industry
Norsk Titanium AS, Norway, and Spirit AeroSystems, Kansas, USA, have entered into a commercial agreement to additively manufacture structural titanium components for the commercial aerospace industry. Norsk Titanium’s proprietary plasma arc Rapid Plasma Deposition™ (RPD™) technology will reportedly be used to build parts to near-net shape, with the aim of decreasing waste and energy consumption and thus reducing production costs by up to 30%.
Spirit currently builds thousands of titanium parts for multiple customers around the globe and expects that at least 30% of them could be candidates for the RPD process. Tom Gentile, Spirit’s President and CEO, stated, “We are pleased to enter into this innovative commercial agreement with Norsk Titanium to fabricate compliant and high-quality parts for our customers. Reducing our material cost and our environmental impact is a win-win for Spirit, our customers and the communities where we do business.”
Spirit AeroSystems and Norsk Titanium have been collaborating to develop this technology for the aerospace industry since 2008. The companies stated that they have now identified parts which can be produced by RPD beginning immediately, thus warranting the extension and solidification of the partnership into a commercial agreement.
“As the Spirit and Norsk Titanium relationship approaches its 10th year, we reflect on the value of this partnership and the significant milestones achieved during the transition from R&D to production,” commented Warren Boley, CEO of Norsk Titanium. “We recently announced becoming the world’s first FAA-approved 3D-printed structural titanium provider and Spirit is the ideal tier-one aerostructures partner to leverage this pioneering capability.”
