Norsk Titanium, the world’s first FAA-approved supplier of aerospace-grade additive-manufactured structural titanium components, has announced that its Plattsburgh Development and Qualification Center (PDQC) site has been officially added to the Spirit AeroSystems Approved Suppliers List in anticipation of the start of qualified production later this year.

Together with the recent announcements of PDQC being added to Boeing’s Qualified Producers List and its certification under AS9100D, this new qualification is key to furthering the availability of Norsk’s ‘disruptive technology’ in the aerospace market (Spirit AeroSystems is the world’s largest independent manufacturers of aerostructures).

Norsk’s COO, Tamara Morytko, said: “These significant achievements have been made possible by the foresight and commitment made to Norsk by the State of New York and Empire State Development.

“We are extremely proud of our PDQC quality and operations teams, and we appreciate the continued confidence our customers have demonstrated in Norsk by granting these qualifications.”

PDQC, which currently houses nine of Norsk’s proprietary Rapid Plasma Deposition titanium printing machines, is the product of the partnership between Norsk and the State of New York, and Norsk’s continued advancement of the RPD technology that originated in Norway.

PDQC will produce aerospace components for Boeing and Spirit, as well as other aerospace manufacturers.

Norsk’s proprietary RPD process uses titanium wire with plasma torches to ‘print’ titanium structural components on an industrial scale. RPD can be used to produce large structural parts weighing over 100lb; it is also 50-100 times faster than powder-based systems and uses 25-50% less titanium than incumbent forging processes.