Additive manufacturing company Norsk Titanium US Inc. (Norsk) specializes in structural, aerospace-grade titanium components, and was actually the first to have its 3D printed titanium structural components approved by the Federal Aviation Administration to be used in a commercial airplane , the Boeing Dreamliner, back in 2017.

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Now, the company has announced production deliveries of new 3D printed components for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner to Leonardo’s South Italy-based Grottaglie Plant, which is part of its Aerostructures Division. These new Boeing parts were made using Norsk’s patented Rapid Plasma Deposition (RPD) AM process, which it publicly unveiled to the world in 2015. The proprietary technology, which I’ve seen called both a plasma arc method and a DED one, uses an environment of inert gas, such as argon, to melt titanium wire. Then, just like other 3D printing technologies, the heated material is built up quickly in subsequent layers to make the final, near-net-shape part. To ensure accuracy, the RPD process is monitored more than 600 times per second for quality assurance purposes. Inside view of a Rapid Plasma Deposition (RPD) MERKE IV machine Norsk has long put a heavy focus on metallurgy. While other metal materials, including nickel alloys, tool […]

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