Arconic wins $1 Billion Airbus contract
Staff
General Aerospace airbus ArconicThe deal helps solidify Arconic’s leadership position in the aerospace industry.
It was only a week ago that Arconic launched as its own standalone company. However, the Alcoa heir has solidified itself as a precision engineering and advanced manufacturing leader in the aerospace industry through a new contract deal with Airbus.
The aerospace giant announced that it has selected Arconic in a multi-year $1 billion agreement. Arconic will provide aluminum sheet and plate for the Airbus A320 family of aircraft. This agreement makes Arconic the sole supplier to Airbus for specific applications including some wing, fuselage and structural components.
“This large contract is a further important step to expand our leadership position in the aerospace industry,” said Klaus Kleinfeld, Chairman and CEO of Arconic. “We are proud that Airbus has chosen us to support their fastest growing, technologically advanced programs. Partnerships like this with industry leaders are core to our strategy and this contract is another proof point of the potential that lies in it. We continue to focus on developing products and technologies that take all of our aerospace customers to new heights.”
The deal, which begins in January 2017, will include material from Arctic’s new state-of-the-art plate stretcher in Davenport, Iowa. The new “very thick plate stretcher” will come online in 2017 and allow the company to produce extremely large high-strength monolithic wing ribs, enhancing the performance of the aluminum plates.
The stretching process reduces stresses in the plate, allowing for the part to be easily machined or processed. This process is well suited to produce aluminum wing ribs to address strength issues in large composite wings.
In addition to Arconic’s proprietary alloys, Airbus planes will feature Arconic plate products on every platform, used in key applications such as wing ribs, fuselage frames and other structural parts of the aircraft.
This strategically important deal continues to expand Arconic’s leadership position in the aerospace industry.
