German-Russian Joint Venture FITNIK is Leveraging AM for Aerospace and Aviation Industries

The interest of aerospace industries in AM has been continually growing and the adoption rate itself describes a curve looking like a taking-off plane. As announced, the promising German-Russian joint venture “FITNIK” has started operations as of January 2018.

Partners are the FIT Additive Manufacturing Group based in Lupburg (Germany), specialized in rapid prototyping and Additive Design and Manufacturing services, and NIK Ltd., based in Zhukovsky (Russian Federation), an engineering consulting firm active in the Russian and international aerospace market providing engineering and consulting.

The cooperation combines two specialists united by one goal: To open up the Russian market for AM. Whereas FIT will provide ADM (Additive Design and Manufacturing) expertise and services for the Russian market, NIK joins forces as the local partner for the market entry. Furthermore, FIT intends to expand its scope of services, resorting to NIK’s expertise in aircraft engineering, based on additive manufacturing technologies. One further goal is the subsequent establishing of an additive design, research, testing, production, and training center.

FITNIK has started establishing operations by recruiting design and engineering staff in Russia.

“FITNIK embodies a unique synergy. With FITNIK, we will have an incredible opportunity to access many target markets in Russia very quickly. At the same time, this joint venture will allow us to provide a new level of qualified additive engineering to our international customers, at very competitive prices. This is a big step for additive manufacturing industries", states Carl Fruth, founder and CEO of the FIT Group.

Alexander Korneev, CEO at FITNIK Ltd., sums up the intentions as follows, “This joint venture is the key to ensure a robust manufacturing process over the entire chain of product creation, notably including additive design and additive manufacturing. Our goal is to create truly comprehensive services for aerospace and aviation industries making optimum use of the disruptive additive manufacturing technologies to enter into a new generation of products.”