Oerlikon and Boeing Collaborate in Additive Manufacturing

Boeing (Chicago, IL), the world’s largest aerospace company, and Oerlikon (Pfäffikon Schwyz, Switzerland), a leading technology and engineering group, signed a five-year collaboration agreement to develop standard materials and processes for metal-based additive manufacturing (also known as 3D printing), a controlled process where material is joined or solidified to create a three-dimensional part. “This agreement is an important step toward fully unlocking the value of powder bed titanium AM for the aerospace industry,” said Leo Christodoulou, the chief technologist at Boeing. “Our companies will work together to standardize AM operations from powder management to finished product and enable the development of a wide range of safe, reliable and cost effective structural titanium aerospace components.”

“This program will drive the faster adoption of additive manufacturing in the rapidly growing aerospace, space and defense markets,” said Dr. Roland Fischer, the chief executive officer of Oerlikon Group. “Working together will define the path in producing airworthy AM components for serial manufacturing. We see collaboration as a key enabler to unlocking the value that additive manufacturing can bring to aircraft platforms and look forward to partnering with Boeing.”

The companies will use the data from this collaboration to support the qualification of AM suppliers to produce metallic components using a variety of machines and materials. The research will initially focus on industrializing titanium powder bed fusion additive manufacturing and ensuring parts made with this process meet the flight requirements of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Department of Defense (DoD). This strong collaboration will enable the companies to meet the current challenges to qualify materials and processes for aerospace and provide a route for the adoption of additive manufacturing with a qualified supply chain that achieves quality and cost targets.

www.oerlikon.com/am, www.boeing.com