Alcoa credits its recent acquisition of RTI International Metals—now known as Alcoa Titanium & Engineered Products—as one of the driving factors behind the agreement. The RTI acquisition enabled Alcoa to add titanium to its metal additive manufacturing (AM) capabilities.
Alcoa reports that it will employ CT scanning and hot isostatic pressing (HIP) at its aerospace facility to produce the parts, along with titanium ingot melting and billetizing, machining and finishing.
The use of HIP indicates that Alcoa will only use AM for the near net shape of the fuselage and engine pylon parts, rather than 3D printing the parts in a single step.
However, the company also recently invested USD$60 million in 3D-printed materials and processes, including metal powders.
“Each time we have a missing part at assembly level it causes a significant disturbance and costs money for us to recover. AM can be used to manufacture missing and non-standard parts fast in low quantities,” said Bernard Duprieu, manufacturing engineer with Airbus’ Research and Technology team.
Duprieu and his team are currently developing an AM workshop that can produce customized parts in under 24 hours.
The extent to which OEMs like Airbus will adopt AM into their own production lines remains uncertain, especially when Tier 1 suppliers like Alcoa are willing to shoulder the risk for them. Nevertheless, with Alcoa joining the likes of General Electric in investing in metal additive manufacturing, we should expect to see more 3D-printed parts taking flight soon.
The precise details of the agreement have not been disclosed, but Alcoa did report that the first 3D-printed parts will be delivered by Airbus in mid-2016.
For more information, visit the Alcoa website.