Premium Aerotec and Concept Laser Sign Cooperation Agreement

Premium Aerotec GmbH (Ausburg, Germany) is starting series production of 3D printed metal parts at the Varel site of the Airbus Group (Friesland, Netherlands). To do this, the Airbus subsidiary constructed a new production hall for the additive manufacturing of titanium parts in Varel. At the same time, the company concluded a cooperation agreement with Concept Laser GmbH (Lichtenfels, Germany) as their premium supplier for the 3D printing machinery and plant technology.

Industrial series production is gathering pace with this investment as Premium Aerotec follows the plans of Airbus. According to Peter Sander, the head of emerging technologies and concepts at Airbus, they plan to print one ton of metal powder a month in 2018. Accordingly, additive manufacturing (AM) production and AM processes will be consistently promoted and expanded through to 2018.

Premium Aerotec’s new production hall for 3D metal printing commenced operation on January 20, 2016. The opening ceremony was attended by 250 employees and guests, including Brigitte Zypries, the Parliamentary Secretary of State at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and aerospace coordinator for the German government. This heralded the start of industrial series production of a double-walled pipe elbow in the fuel system of the A400M transport aircraft.

These complex parts were previously produced from individual cast parts that were welded together to form one assembly. In the hall, two M2 cusing Multilaser machines and one X line 1000R machine from Concept Laser produce 3D parts using the LaserCUSING process. “By the middle of 2016, another X line 2000R will be added. It features what is currently the world’s largest build envelope (800 x 400 x 500 cu mm) in the field of powder-bed-based laser melting and is also equipped with 2 x 1,000 W lasers,” says Gerd Weber, site manager in Varel.

For the aviation industry, AM methods present both an opportunity and a challenge, because AM technology produces entirely new components and also creates new supply chains. Premium Aerotec is at the focal point of an extensive network of a wide range of different companies. In order to shape a successful future in partnership, the working relationship with certain partners has been stepped up. On January 20, 2016, a delegation from Premium Aerotec signed a cooperation agreement with Concept Laser as the premium supplier for machinery and plant technology.

The core aspects of the working relationship are also the further industrialization of the laser melting process for applications in aviation, the further development of the plant and process technology and the QA systems, as well as the qualification of new powder alloys. “This cooperation marks an important milestone for the industrialization of 3D metal printing in aircraft construction, and undoubtedly also sends a signal to other industries,” said Frank Herzog, the president of Concept Laser. “The network will work together to improve the value chain. We are already working today on the solutions of tomorrow to make laser melting with metals even more attractive for commercial series production. The implementation of the Industry 4.0 concept in the form of digitization, automation and the interlinking of any number of machines are an integral part of our AM Factory of Tomorrow, which was presented at the end of last year.”

www.premium-aerotec.com,  www.airbusgroup.com,  www.conceptlaser.com