Declaration of intent signed to found an international research and application centre for additive manufacturing processes with a focus on aerospace propulsion systems at the Ludwig Bölkow Campus (LBC).

Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as industrial 3D printing, enables components with highly complex geometries to be built up layer by layer from metallic powder using a laser.

The signatories of the declaration of intent are made up of aerospace company Airbus Safran Launchers; engine manufacturer MTU Aero Engines; EOS GmbH, the world's leading company for technology and quality in the field of high-end AM solutions and a pioneer in the field of direct metal laser sintering (DMLS); Airbus Group Innovations; the Technical University of Munich with its Institute for Machine Tools and Industrial Management (iwb); the Fraunhofer Development Center for X-ray Technology (EZRT), a division of the Fraunhofer IIS; Airbus subsidiary APWorks; Industrieanlagen-Betriebsgesellschaft mbH (IABG); the Airbus Endowed Chair for Integrative Simulation and Engineering of Materials and Processes (ISEMP) of the University of Bremen; and the ESI Group, a pioneer and the world's leading provider of virtual prototyping solutions. The Aerospace Factory's management committee will consist of one representative from each partner and will be chaired by aerospace company Airbus Safran Launchers.

Based on the Ludwig Bölkow Campus's three-pillar model, Aerospace Factory Additive Manufacturing will also run research and development projects, work to train and safeguard the next generation of skilled workers, and have Airbus subsidiary APWorks as a founding partner from the very beginning. Bavaria's aerospace innovation system will therefore profit from a further excellent scientific and industrial partnership. Here, it is important to note that the cooperation partners haven't only agreed to work on a research project, but will also be teaming up in a project centre with a 'pilot factory' on the Ludwig Bölkow Campus. This will also lead to investment in research and development.

The founding partners will cooperate along the entire value chain of component design, powder production, the additive manufacturing process including process simulation and post-processing along with quality control of the process and components, working both collaboratively and as part of national and international partnerships. In terms of materials science, the focus of the research on campus will be on the development of tailor-made materials for the 3D printing process. This will result in a holistic approach in industrial 3D printing for mission-critical propulsion components in the aerospace field. The priority here is to take the research results from the test environment and apply them in industrial production.

The Aerospace Factory is financed on the one hand by the partners themselves and on the other via national and international research and development contracts (e.g. the DLR Space Administration and ESA).

Jérôme Breteau, who manages the Future Launchers Preparatory Programme at ESA, outlines the enormous potential of 3D printing for ESA programmes, and concludes with the following: “Aerospace Factory Additive Manufacturing at the Ludwig Bölkow Campus will unlock the untapped potential of the additive manufacturing process for future propulsion components in the space industry."