Alcoa and Airbus have announced an agreement on additively manufactured titanium fuselage and engine pylon components, with the first of these to be delivered mid-this year.
Details in the press release were few, note 3DPrint.com and others, but confirm Alcoa, as a partner, will provide 3D printing-based technology to the French-headquartered aerospace giant.
“We are proud to partner with Airbus to help pave the way to the future of aerospace development and manufacturing,” said Alcoa Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Klaus Kleinfeld, in the statement, which lauded Alcoa’s range of capabilities.
These included in materials science, production and qualification.
“The unique combination of our multi-material alloy development expertise, powder production capabilities, aerospace manufacturing strength and product qualification know-how position us to lead in this exciting, emerging space,” added Kleinfeld.
Airbus has been an enthusiastic adopter of 3D printing, for example announcing in May last year that it had delivered an A350XWB with over 1,000 3D printed parts made out of Ultem 9085