AP&C – a GE Additive company has announced it has signed a new agreement with Airbus to provide titanium powders (Ti-6AI-4V) for use in metal additive manufacturing applications. The new multiyear agreement to provide Ti-6AI-4V powders deepens AP&C's working relationship with Airbus, which dates back several years.

"The adoption of metal additive technology in aerospace continues to gather momentum. And one of the challenges of matching that pace in a highly-regulated industry like aerospace, is building a robust supply chain that can meet both the industry standard for conventionally and additively manufactured parts, but also add value," said Alain Dupont, CEO at AP&C.

"Our approach is to be more than just a supplier of metal powders to our customers. To scale metal additive manufacturing, acceleration can only be achieved by sharing knowledge best practice to lower risk and increase stability. One way we have supported Airbus in recent years, for example, has been to help its in-house additive manufacturing team establish its own methods and processes to qualify Ti-6AI-4V powders," added Dupont.

AP&C is a world-leader in the large-scale production of plasma atomized titanium, aluminium and nickel powders. The company continues to invest in its plasma atomisation technology that allows new materials to be produced and ultimately reduce the cost of plasma atomised powders, while maintaining the high quality required by metal additive manufacturing users in the aerospace industry.

AP&C has grown its capacity to more than 1,000 tonnes of titanium powder per year. This large-scale production is performed in more than a dozen powder production lines at two manufacturing sites.