Alcoa has signed a contract worth around $1 billion with Airbus for high-tech, multi-material aerospace fastening systems. The deal is Alcoa’s largest fastener contract ever with the aircraft manufacturer. Alcoa’s fasteners fly on every Airbus platform.
Alcoa’s fasteners will be used to assemble some of Airbus’s latest high-growth airplanes, including the A350 XWB, Airbus’ newest commercial airplane, and the A320neo. In addition, Airbus will use Alcoa’s fastening systems for longer-running platforms, including the A330.
As part of this agreement, Alcoa will supply advanced fastening systems, such as those that enhance the assembly of aircraft panels and engine pylons on newer airplanes with sophisticated design features. Alcoa’s fasteners are made using a variety of materials including stainless steel, titanium and nickel-based superalloys, which improve fatigue life, enable lightning strike protection, and improve wear and reusability on conventional and composite aircraft. Alcoa will produce these fastening systems at fourteen of its global manufacturing facilities.
It all comes at a positive time for Airbus, and hence Alcoa, with Airbus having exceeded its targets for 2015, achieving a new record of 635 aircraft deliveries for 85 customers of which ten were new. These deliveries comprise: 491 A320 Family aircraft; 103 A330s; 27 A380s; and 14 A350 XWBs. This production achievement means that Airbus’ aircraft deliveries in 2015 were up for the 13th year in a row, surpassing the previous year-end delivery record of 629 aircraft – set in 2014.
Airbus also achieved 1,036 net orders from 53 customers (of which eight are new), comprising 897 single-aisle aircraft and 139 widebodies. At 2015 year-end, the overall backlog had climbed to a new industry record of 6,787 aircraft, valued at US$996.3 billion at list prices.
“This commercial and industrial performance unequivocally proves that global demand for our aircraft has remained resilient,” states Fabrice Brégier, Airbus president and CEO, pictured. “In 2015, Airbus also laid firm foundations for the future, increasing the capability and variety of the aircraft which we can offer to our customers.”
Overall, 2015 was a year of solid and wide-ranging Airbus accomplishments. For example, the A320neo was certified by the aviation authorities on both sides of the Atlantic just five years after its launch. In addition, Airbus delivered 14 A350s – making good its pledge to the airlines who are now benefitting from the world’s most efficient and advanced airliner. Important progress was also made on the A350 programme’s next variant, the A350-1000 – whose major components and structures are now taking shape across various production sites.
Likewise, parts are now in production for the first A330neo – with the machining of its first engine pylon and centre wing-box components. In addition, there has been good news for the flagship A380, 10 years after its first flight, with the programme breaking-even for the first time.
Another notable highlight was last September’s official opening of the first Airbus factory in the US, at Mobile on Alabama’s Gulf Coast, where between 40 and 50 A320 Family aircraft will be produced annually by 2018.
As for Alcoa, it has been growing its multi-material aerospace business to capture growth in the global aerospace market in support of its broader transformation. Recently, it acquired global titanium leader RTI International Metals, aerospace components manufacturer TITAL and global jet engine parts leader Firth Rixson.
Alcoa also has grown organically. It opened the world’s largest aluminum-lithium facility in Lafayette, Indiana, launched expansions to increase jet engine parts production in La Porte, Indiana and Hampton, Virginia, began installation of advanced aerospace plate manufacturing capabilities in Davenport, Iowa, announced plans to double its coatings capabilities for jet engine components in Whitehall, Michigan and announced an investment in technology that strengthens the metallic structures of traditional and additive manufactured parts, also in Whitehall, Michigan.
Both companies are on a fast journey upwards, in their different ways. With the kind of relative growth they are showing, the sky is clearly not the limit!
KEY FACTS
- Alcoa will supply primarily titanium, steel and nickel-based superalloy fastening systems for every Airbus platform
- Deal strengthens Alcoa’s position on new, high-growth platforms including the A350 XWB and A320neo, and reinforces position on existing aircraft, such as the A330
- Alcoa supplying several proprietary products developed specifically for Airbus, produced at fourteen of Alcoa’s global manufacturing facilities.
PHOTO: FABRICE BREGIER - Photo Credit T Jullien
