APWORKS will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Premium AEROTEC as Airbus relinquishes its share holding.
Premium AEROTEC is a tier one supplier of metal components for Airbus aircraft, the German company is also a wholly owned subsidiary of Airbus. In 2013 APWORKS began life as an Airbus Group spin-off and has since developed projects with enterprises including Dassault Systems and LPW Technology.
APWORKS covers the full metal additive manufacturing ecosystem, offering component optimization, their Scalmalloy aluminium powder and qualified serial production.
Based at the Ludwig Bölkow Campus in Taufkirchen, near Munich APWORKS has a broad customer base including enterprises working in robotics, automotive, medical technology and aerospace. While much of this work remains confidential, publically the company is well known for the world’s first metal 3D printed electric motorcycle, the Light Rider. The 3D printed motorcycle demonstrates the capacity of additive manufacturing to make components with reduced weight, complex geometries and topological optimized structures.
The price paid by Premium AEROTEC was not disclosed. In 2017 Premium AEROTEC reported revenue of 2 billion euros.
Industrial additive manufacturing
Dr. Thomas Ehm, Chairman of the Executive Board at Premium AEROTEC said, “Our investment has created a powerful alliance between Premium AEROTEC and APWORKS which opens up all of the opportunities in additive manufacturing for both actual and future clients.”
We want to actively support APWORKS on its dynamic growth journey. With our experience as a pioneer in metal 3D printing and our knowledge of the tried and trusted quality standards in aerospace, we are the industrial reference point for APWORKS’ innovative ideas.
Premium AEROTEC is working towards a goal of using additive manufacturing for industrial mass production. Joachim Zettler, Managing Director of APWORKS commented, “The aim is to combine APWORKS’ highly dynamic approach in solving the issues posed by our clients’ additive manufacturing questions with Premium AEROTEC’s decades of production experience to elicit maximum benefit for our clients from each and every industry, throughout the entire additive manufacturing value added chain”.
3D printing for aerospace
Earlier this month American Airlines backed out of a deal to purchase 22 A350s from the French company. The decision by AA to spend an estimated $12 billion with US rival Boeing on 47 787 Dreamliners was explained as means to simplify their fleet. However, the news has prompted speculation that the move is a symptom of an increasingly protectionist atmosphere ahead of a brewing trade war between the US and China.
Both the Airbus A350 and the Boeing 787 Dreamliner include metal 3D printed components. 3D printing on the Airbus A350 was used to make a titanium bracket. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner was the first commercial airplane with metal 3D printed parts used as a structural component.
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