Oerlikon AM and MT Aerospace join forces to offer aerospace customers additive manufacturing solutions

Oerlikon AM and MT Aerospace are partnering to accelerate the use of additive parts in the aerospace and defense industries. The partnership aims to bring efficiency and cost savings to the aerospace and defense market by providing end-to-end solutions to their customers.

The two companies are important players in the aerospace market, and their combined expertise and sophisticated technical capabilities promise to help address the industry’s most difficult and disruptive challenges – improved efficiency and safety at lower cost. Additively manufactured components, also called 3D-printed or digitized components due to the precision with which they are made, are lighter and better designed than components made in traditional manufacturing. Incorporating digitization in both air and space will enable new advances in the industry.

In addition to MT Aerospace’s heritage in designing highly stressed and lightweight metal structures and Oerlikon’s materials, design, 3D-printing and post-processing capabilities, the partnership offers aerospace customers a notable advantage by realizing synergies between construction/design, manufacturing and part inspection and qualification.

“With their bundled expertise, the two partner companies cover the entire value chain from component design and manufacturing to testing and qualification,” says Hans J. Steininger, Chief Executive Officer of MT Aerospace AG, a subsidiary of Bremen-based OHB SE aerospace company. “In this way, we can offer customers a ‘one-stop shop’ solution from product specification to the finished, qualified part.”

Additive manufacturing is driving the next industrial revolution. Instead of using traditional techniques, casting, machining, joining and assembly, it allows complete freedom to create complex integrated shapes that are optimized for function, performance and cost.

“Through this partnership, we look forward to continuing to lead innovation and digitization trends in the aerospace industry by accelerating and scaling up the process from concept to operational delivery,” said Prof. Dr. Michael Süss, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Oerlikon. “To advance the application of additive manufacturing, collaboration with key players like MT Aerospace is essential. We are looking forward to bringing more additively manufactured parts to aerospace.”

By bundling their capabilities, Oerlikon AM and MT Aerospace are setting a path for their customers to unleash the full potential of additive manufacturing. The ability to optimally design specific parts or components provides obvious design and manufacturing benefits.

Oerlikon and MT Aerospace are exhibiting at the Paris Air Show, a leading trade fair for the aviation and space industry, which takes place in Paris, France, from June 17 to 20, 2019. Oerlikon is showcasing its additive manufacturing, coating and turbine component solutions at booth G79 in Hall 2B. MT Aerospace will host Paris Air Show visitors at booth C 318 in Hall 2C, where it will display its 3D-expertise.