Norsk Titanium (Hall 1 Stand H299) will increase its additive manufacturing (AM) production capacity 60 percent at its U.S. production facility on the heels of sealing a purchase agreement from New York’s Empire State Development corporation for more of its Rapid Plasma Deposition (RPD) Merke-IV machines, the company announced here at the Paris Air Show. Norsk, an FAA-approved supplier of aerospace-grade, additive manufactured structural titanium components, developed the RPD process, which can transform titanium wire into complex structures, and its Plattsburgh, New York, facility is the first industrial scale AM plant. Each of its Merke-IV machines can produce up to 20 tons of 3-D printed material per year, at a cost savings of 30- to 50 percent over legacy forging and billet production techniques, according to the Norwegian company.
In March, Norsk announced it will deliver the first FAA-approved, AM-produced structural titanium components to Boeing for the 787 Dreamliner. Here at Le Bourget, the Norwegian company is displaying the Dreamliner RPD components along with a full-scale mockup of the company’s Merke-IV RPD machine.
Norsk also announced here a “significant investment” from Triangle Holdings, an aerospace investment company. Terms of the investment were not released. Triangle, a Fortress Investment Group affiliate, has invested more than €1 billion ($1.2 billion) in aircraft and aerospace related assets since 2011. The investment will enable Norsk “to extend our Rapid Plasma Deposition capability fully into the commercial aerospace sector and beyond, and accelerates its revolutionary changes to metal manufacturing processes forever,” said John Anderson, Jr., Norsk’s chairman. Triangle partner Jeremy Barnes said the investment “reflects out strategy of investing in game-changing businesses across the aerospace sector.”
Further bolstering its expanding AM capabilities, Norsk recently established an industrial scale supply chain for delivering AM-made structural components under a Long Term Agreement signed last year with French precision manufacturer Mecachrome. The two companies are collaborating on developing the industrial processes required for large scale aerospace AM, and are currently bidding on production orders from multiple aerospace customers in Europe and North America.