Oerlikon signs Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Lufthansa Technik.
Global technology group, Oerlikon has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Lufthansa Technik, a leading provider of maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services for civil aircraft, engines and components, to establish processes for additive manufacturing (AM) in aircraft MRO.
The partnership builds on the growing trend for the industrialisation of AM in the MRO industry which offers potential cost savings in manufacturing, procurement, warehousing and supply chain management.
The partners will build up representative component geometrics which will be printed on identical printers using the same process parameters and powder specifications at Oerlikon AM Charlotte (North Carolina, USA), Oerlikon AM Barleben (Germany) and Lufthansa Technik in Hamburg (Germany).
“We are confident that Oerlikon’s extensive expertise in additive manufacturing and the aerospace industry, combined with our proven ability to integrate solutions throughout the manufacturing value chain on a global scale will bring great benefits to Lufthansa Technik,” said Dr. Roland Fischer, CEO, Oerlikon Group. “We look forward to strengthening our partnership with Lufthansa Technik and join forces to develop reliable, repeatable and quality-assured additive manufacturing processes, standards and products for the MRO industry.”
“Lufthansa Technik is active in areas such as the cabin of the future, 3D printing, and Industry 4.0,” Bernhard Krueger-Sprengel, vice president, Engine Services, at Lufthansa Technik added. “We see the partnership with Oerlikon’s AM team as an exciting opportunity to accelerate Lufthansa Technik’s plan of having local AM repair capabilities on a global scale.”
The one-year partnership could potentially be extended to incorporate other printer models and collect more data on manufacturing processes. These results will be shared with relevant industry bodies to help define standards for the qualification and approval of aircraft components.
Over the last year, major MRO providers have established similar partnerships with leading AM companies to develop robust workflows for the technology within the industry. Emirates Engineering is using 3D Systems' selective laser sintering technology to test lightweight parts for commercial aircraft, SIA Engineering Company recently formed a joint venture with Stratasys to establish an AM service centre, and Etihad Engineering is going a step further working with BigRep to embed "digital smartness" into large-scale aircraft components. Earlier this year, Oerlikon also struck up a partnership with Boeing to collaborate to develop standard materials and processes for structural titanium AM aerospace components.
