Leading UK aerospace manufacturer, GKN Aerospace, announced that it will be investing £50 million (about $64 million) in the company’s additive manufacturing (AM) capabilities at its Trollhättan, Sweden facility. £12 million of the funding (~$15 million) will come from Industriklivet, a financing initiative for sustainability and Industry 4.0 objectives within the Swedish Energy Agency.
GKN Aerospace is one of the world’s most experienced innovators when it comes to AM, with the company having organized its AM activity into a standalone brand, GKN Additive, in 2017. And, relevantly to the new £50 million investment, GKN Aerospace acquired Swedish directed energy deposition (DED) original equipment manufacturer (OEM), Permanova Lasersystem AB, in the fall of 2022.
The new AM facility in Sweden is expected to be operational sometime this year, and it is estimated that the investment will create about 150 new jobs. The most exciting aspect to the announcement is that it’s signaling the increased use of AM for engine components, in particular:
In addition to enhancing the sustainability of GKN’s overall operational footprint, the new investment could also certainly contribute to the acceleration of AM’s deployment for supply chain digitalization. As I wrote in a post from last October, supply chain digitalization is an increasingly urgent priority in the aerospace sector due to the rise of falsely certified aircraft parts.
It is highly possible that this exact problem is about to rear its head even more prominently. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has temporarily grounded the Boeing 737 MAX 9, in response to a panel door blowout mid-flight on an Alaska Airlines craft last week.
While the reason behind the malfunction is unclear as yet, it has already led to the discovery of more problems, including “loose hardware”, on other 737’s that have been grounded. Aerospace industry stakeholders may rapidly gain a far greater interest in all potential uses of AM for digitally-enabled quality control.
Images courtesy of GKN Aerospace