Alcoa set to leverage its 3D printing expertise for the aerospace industry

“Airframe and Engine OEMs—bring your challenges to us. We have the material expertise, resources and the personnel to ‘crack the code,’” promised Alcoa executive Eric Roegner. The senior executive was addressing an industrial gathering at the Farnborough International Airshow with the U.S. company’s management team. Late last month during a media event at the Alcoa Technology Center in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, just outside Pittsburgh, Roegner told reporters, “We’re truly material agnostic.”

Kicking off the event, Ray Kilmer, executive VP and chief technology officer at Alcoa, pointed out the ubiquity of Alcoa’s expertise on lightweight metals and other materials. “If it moves, we’re on it,” he boasted, adding that Alcoa products are found not only in structures, but engines as well, dating back to the Wright Brothers, whose four-cylinder engine had an aluminium crankshaft. “Ninety-three percent of aluminium alloys that have ever flown are from Alcoa,” Kilmer said.

Alcoa is in the midst of a complex corporate restructuring and rebranding phase. Expected to be completed sometime in the second half of this year, the changeover will see Alcoa’s aerospace businesses become part of a new business entity known as Arconic.

Roegner explained Alcoa’s “material agnostic” stance, meaning it now counts additive manufacturing—better known as 3D printing technology—to its mix of products and services. “We’re known for our legacy capabilities with sheet, machining, casting, hybrid, extrusion; and now we’ve added printing and powder technology,” he said.

Alcoa has doubled down on its commitment to 3D printing technology with last week’s opening of an entirely new powder atomization building at its New Kensington facility. Building F replaces an older structure with a top-tier 3D metal powder producing facility, where proprietary titanium, nickel and aluminium powders can be produced in quantities and blends optimized for designing, manufacturing, and certifying aerospace parts.

Announced just months ago in September 2015, the new building is part of a $60 million investment in additive manufacturing materials.

Alcoa sees its advantage in 3D printing for the aerospace industry as a “one-stop shop” for aircraft and engine designers and manufacturers. Rod Heiple, director of R&D at the Alcoa research centre said the potential for additive manufacturing in aerospace is immense, but echoed Roenger’s comment that the relatively new industry is currently in the “Wild West” phase of expansion.

Heiple said, “Today’s 3D printing materials work [for some applications], but aren’t optimized for aerospace. Alcoa has the background to understand the interdependencies of all requirements for materials in the aerospace field. As researchers, we get excited by design opportunities with additives. But it’s not a simple process, especially with aerospace.”