Lockheed Martin Announces Partnership with Sintavia for Metal Additive Manufacturing
Metal additive manufacturing has a place in aerospace and defense. This allows for quick creation of prototypes and spare parts, which can help in managing supply chains. This technology is being recognized by companies all over the globe and they are investing accordingly. In the latest example, Lockheed Martin and Sintavia have announced a collaboration to further metal 3D printing technology within Lockheed’s products.
Lockheed Martin is an American aerospace, arms, defense and information security company that employs approximately 155,000 people. They are now partnered up with Sintavia to be one of their suppliers for additive manufacturing. Sintavia is an industrial digital company that offers Design and manufacturing technology with a focus for sustainability. They offer heat transfer, propulsion systems and power generation. Sintavia is the largest additive manufacturer of advanced propulsion system for flight and launch OEMs. This gives Lockheed Martin a lot of industry experience and expertise.
For aerospace, metal additive manufacturing is used to create prototypes or spare parts. (Photo credit Farinia Group).
This collaboration will examine a variety of additive manufacturing technologies such as electron beam-directed electricity deposition (Electron Beam DED), friction stir AM, and laser powder bed fusion. Lockheed Martin hopes to harness these technologies for the improvement of metal additive manufacturing for aerospace, building on the initiative ‘AM Forward’ from the White House. This project will improve small and medium manufacturing, increase the job market, and improve supply chains. Honeywell and Raytheon are among the initial participants.
“Sintavia Martin and Lockheed Martin are committed improving the capability, agility, and competitiveness the defense industrial supply chain.” said Brian Neff, Sintavia’s founder and CEO. “Lockheed Martin is our partner in identifying and streamlining manufacturing inefficiencies, especially in the production flight critical structures.”
“Lockheed Martin’s collaboration with Sintavia demonstrates our dedication to the White House’s AM Forward campaign in reducing overall operating costs and strengthening our domestic supply chain, efforts that are in line with our 21st Century Security vision,” said David Tatro, vice president for Operations Process Transformation at Lockheed Martin.
Similar projects to advance metal additive manufacturing within aerospace and defense have included Velo3D’s integrated metal solution, and a contract of £3-5 million offered by the UK Ministry of Defence to produce certified metal parts using the technology. For more information on this collaboration with Sintavia, you can find Lockheed Martin’s press release HERE.
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Cover photo credit: Lockheed Martin