Engineering and manufacturing company GKN Aerospace has partnered with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), committing $8.4 million to a new initiative called Titanium Industrialization and Technology Advancement for Near-net Additive Manufacturing (TITAN-AM).
The program is designed to utilize wire-based laser metal deposition (LMD-w) for real-world aerospace production, with a particular focus on building the large structural components that next-generation aircraft demand.
Five Pillars Driving the Program
TITAN-AM is structured around five interconnected priorities. The first is scaling LMD-w processes to handle oversized titanium structural parts. The second involves building comprehensive material performance databases to guarantee structural integrity.
Third, the team will develop advanced computational tools to sharpen both design and production outcomes. Fourth, non-destructive inspection techniques specifically suited to additively manufactured parts will be refined. Finally, the program will validate everything through hands-on demonstrations using real aerospace structural components.
All program activity will be carried out at GKN Aerospace’s Global Technology Centre in Fort Worth, Texas, a facility already well established as a nerve center for manufacturing partnerships with U.S. defense and aerospace stakeholders.
“TITAN-AM represents a significant step forward in additive manufacturing for aerospace structures. By combining our deep manufacturing expertise with AFRL’s vision, we aim to accelerate the readiness of LMD-w technology and demonstrate its value on operational titanium structural components,” said David Bond, CTO Airframes for GKN Aerospace.
From Lab to Flight: A Proven Track Record
GKN Aerospace brings over two decades of additive manufacturing experience to the program and holds an established position in large-scale 3D printed aerospace structures. According to the company, adopting LMD-w at scale is expected to lower material waste, compress production timelines, and open up greater geometric freedom for intricate components.
The company already manufactures the fan case mount ring for the American aerospace company Pratt & Whitney GTF (Geared Turbofan) engine family through additive processes at sites in both Sweden and the United States, with those parts currently in service on the Airbus A220 and Embraer E195-E2.
The Strategic Case for Taking Wire Printing to Production
Aerospace manufacturers no longer treat large-format titanium printing as a future ambition, they are actively qualifying and scaling it. Titanium defines the structural backbone of modern aircraft precisely because of its strength-to-weight ratio and corrosion resistance, yet conventional machining wastes enormous quantities of the material. Wire-based laser deposition solves that problem at the source: by building near-net-shape components layer by layer, LMD-w slashes the buy-to-fly ratio that makes traditional titanium manufacturing so costly and wasteful, putting it in direct competition with metal plate and forging on economic terms.
The evidence is already on the factory floor. Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) has already moved to 3D print titanium aerostructures up to six meters in length using directed energy deposition (DED), as part of pilot projects designed to help the manufacturer master deployment of the technology at that scale. Similarly, Airbus has adopted wire-based DED to fabricate structural titanium components near net shape, rather than through conventional forging.
TITAN-AM is the direct consequence of that progress. Scaling a technology from demonstration to serial production demands validated material datasets, qualified inspection methods, and simulation tools that predict outcomes reliably at production volumes.
3D Printing Industry is inviting speakers for its 2026 Additive Manufacturing Applications (AMA) series, covering Energy, Healthcare, Automotive and Mobility, Aerospace, Space and Defense, and Software. Each online event focuses on real production deployments, qualification, and supply chain integration. Practitioners interested in contributing can complete the call for speakers form here.
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Featured image shows GKN Aerospace’s Global Technology Centre. Photo via GKN Aerospace.
