Premium Aerotec has announced it has achieved a complete process qualification for additively manufactured titanium parts in multi-laser systems for the aviation industry.
It comes after a successful industrial process audit carried out by Airbus on April 11, with signing of the qualification report taking place two weeks later.
The company believes it is the first supplier to the aviation market to achieve such a complete process qualification around the production and supply of 3D printed titanium parts.
Having gained qualification of the process, Premium Aerotec can now use additive manufacturing in the same way it uses traditional means of manufacture, meaning it can now implement the technologies more extensively across the aviation sector.
Premium Aerotec has been working with additive manufacturing for more than five years. It procured a laser powder bed fusion machine in 2014, and by 2016 had received qualification of its first 3D printed parts, double-walled titanium tubes used in ventilation systems, and moved into series production. The company has endeavoured since to jump through the hoops of qualifying the process and in the past two years, Premium Aerotec has participated in intensive examinations of the process, demonstrating the reproducibility of the process and the quality of the material being used, as well as efficiency of the downstream process, including heat treatment and hot isostatic pressing.
In order to gain qualification, the entire process chain, including all auxiliary process and suppliers, were put under scrutiny. By receiving validation of its additive process, Premium Aerotec believes it reinforces the company’s positioning as a trailblazer, helping to drive new technologies into the most demanding industries.
“Premium Aerotec has once more proved that it is an international pioneer and a technological leader in the additive manufacturing of structural components which are approved for aviation,” commented Dr. Jens Walla, Head of Production and CEO of Premium Aerotec.
Source: tctmagazine
