Norsk Titanium and Spirit AeroSystems have started production qualification for Spirit’s first additive-manufactured, titanium, structural component for the Boeing 787. The qualification will validate Norsk’s production and industrialization processes, integrate Spirit’s work scope of machining final parts from additively manufactured near-net shapes, and verify material and final part conformity to requirements.
Norsk has also produced an expansion nozzle demonstrator in support of the European Space Agency’s Technology Research Programme (TRP). This marks the culmination of a TRP contract signed in 2014. The expansion nozzle production utilizes Norsk’s latest rapid plasma disposition (RPD) design technology, incorporating the complex curvatures and minimal residual stresses needed to produce the required thin walled geometry.
Additionally, the company announced an in-progress collaboration with the University of Notre Dame Turbomachinery Laboratory (NDTL), Pratt & Whitney and TurboCam International to develop and test additively manufactured turbomachinery components. As part of the collaboration, NDTL will test an additively-manufactured integrally bladed rotor (IBR) produced and inspected to meet the applicable quality specifications used in Pratt & Whitney’s current turbomachinery components.
Norsk is also collaborating with QuesTek Innovations to test QuesTek’s novel titanium alloys for use with Norsk’s RPD additive manufacturing processes.