Materialise and Proponent announce partnership for aerospace aftermarket supply chains with 3D printing

LEUVEN, Belgium - Materialise and Proponent have today announced a partnership that will raise the profile of 3D printing in aerospace aftermarket supply chains. Proponent is headquartered in Brea, California and Materialise is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium. With the partnership, Materialise and Proponent seek to partner with Aerospace OEMs and Suppliers to offer Airlines and MROs a one-stop-shop solution for aftermarket parts where 3D printing is featured alongside other manufacturing technologies.

In the agreement signed at MRO Europe in Amsterdam, Materialise and Proponent set out to explore ways to help aerospace OEMs access the benefits of 3D printing, ultimately envisioning a digital supply chain enabling on-demand manufacturing. While 3D printing has so far been the domain of specialist engineering departments in aerospace companies, this development will bring it into the procurement domain and thus make it increasingly accessible for MROs to source 3D-printed parts.

Proponent provides traditional distribution services to airlines, MROs and OEMs, as well as innovative inventory management solutions. The company ships 54 million parts per year to over 6,000 aerospace customers in over 100 countries. The majority of parts serve the aftermarket, with applications spanning cabin interiors, engines, airframe and cockpits.

Materialise manufactures 700 part series per year for diverse aerospace customers, from leading OEMs to MROs and supplier tiers. This includes an estimated 26,000 parts per year for the Airbus A350 system alone. Materialise is also currently the only supplier to offer manufacturing services in two 3D printing technologies approved by Airbus for flight-ready parts, since becoming Airbus’s first manufacturer for the Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) technology in May this year.