Boeing Corporation together with the Swiss company Oerlikon Corporation AG, which in recent years has been actively increasing its presence in the market of industrial additive technologies and the production of consumables, signed a five-year agreement on the development and standardization of technologies and materials for 3D printing with metals in aircraft manufacturing.

In a press release about the partnership, Boeing Corporation Chief Technologist Leo Christodoulou said that companies will work together to create standards for the entire additive manufacturing process, from powder quality control to the final product. The main objective is to make possible the production of a wide range of safe, reliable and cost-effective aircraft parts made of titanium.

The head of Oerlikon, Roland Fisher, noted that "this program will accelerate the use of additive production technology in the rapidly growing aviation, space and defense industries, and working together with Boeing will help determine the direction of development of the serial additive production of aviation parts."

Boeing Corporation - one of the pioneers in the application of additive technologies in aviation, began to show interest in this industry since 1997. Last year, an agreement was concluded with Norsk Titanium for the manufacture of titanium elements for the tail section of the Dreamliner 787, which is estimated to reduce the cost of production of the liner by $ 2-3 million. The corporation also cooperates with Stratasys in testing an industrial 3D printer capable of producing objects of almost any size from carbon-filled plastics.