Norsk Titanium U.S. Inc., Plattsburgh, N.Y., a subsidiary of Norsk titanium AS, Norway, announces that in Q4 2016 it will open a nearly 70,000-sq.-ft. additive manufacturing production and training facility that will complement its new headquarters and manufacturing plant, which is currently in the design and planning phase with a targeted completion date in 2017.
The new plant features Norsk Titanium's ‘ultra lean cell' (ULC), which demonstrates a production line that turns CAD files into finished aerospace parts in a space of approximately 120 feet. The ULC showcases the 3D printing, heat treatment, nondestructive testing, and final machining of aerospace-grade titanium parts in a process time of less than 40 hours.
The facility has space for up to ten Merke IV rapid plasma deposition machines, the first of which has arrived from Norway and is in the process of being installed. Each Merke IV production machine weighs 11 metric tons, and requires several weeks to assemble. Each machine can produce approximately 20 metric tons of aerospace-grade structural titanium components per year by the rapid plasma deposition of titanium wire. The first titanium aerospace components to be produced by Norsk in Plattsburgh are planned for November 2016.
According to Norsk Titanium President & Chief Executive Officer Warren M. Boley Jr., "As the industrial scale RPD factory next door comes online during the next year or so, we will move the bulk of production there, while retaining this PDQC building as a qualification and training center as well as a showcase for our latest innovations and technology."