Norsk Titanium and Airbus Move RPD into Full Production

Norsk Titanium’s patented Rapid Plasma Deposition technology is moving from demonstration programs into qualified production with Airbus, signaling a decisive step in how structural titanium aircraft parts are designed, certified and manufactured.

From Early Trials to Qualified Airbus Parts

After years of development and test campaigns, Norsk Titanium has successfully qualified its Merke IV machine and Rapid Plasma Deposition process for Airbus production. Publicly available company information indicates that the qualification unlocks supply of structural titanium components for commercial aircraft programs, notably the A350 family.

The qualification follows an extended collaboration in which Premium AEROTEC, an Airbus subsidiary, used RPD preforms for structural parts that were subsequently machined, validated and installed on A350 assemblies. Industry coverage describes these parts as among the first wire-fed directed energy deposition titanium components to enter serial production on a major European airframe.

Norsk Titanium reports that initial production orders have already been placed, with early shipsets delivered from its facilities in Norway and the United States. These preforms are produced close to net shape, then finished through conventional machining and integrated into Airbus’s established aerostructures supply chain.

The transition from technology demonstrations to flying hardware marks a critical milestone for both companies. It confirms that RPD parts can satisfy Airbus’s stringent material, process and dimensional requirements for primary and secondary structural components.

RPD as a New Model for Titanium Supply

Rapid Plasma Deposition is a wire-based directed energy deposition process that feeds titanium wire into a high-energy plasma arc and builds parts layer by layer. Norsk Titanium positions RPD as a direct alternative to titanium forgings and plate, aiming to reduce buy-to-fly ratios and shorten lead times while using qualified aerospace alloys such as Ti-6Al-4V.

According to company presentations, the process can cut raw material use for some parts by more than half compared with legacy forgings, an attractive proposition in an industry where titanium is expensive and often subject to supply volatility. The ability to deposit near-net-shape preforms also reduces machining time, energy consumption and scrap, supporting broader sustainability objectives across the aviation sector.

For Airbus, RPD offers a way to decouple certain structural components from long forging lead times and constrained global capacity. Public information from both firms indicates that Airbus is progressively introducing directed energy deposition parts in waves, beginning with smaller brackets and fittings and moving toward larger and more complex geometries on the A350 and, in time, other programs.

By certifying the RPD machine, process parameters and material properties within its own design and manufacturing framework, Airbus gains another industrialized route to flight-qualified titanium hardware alongside conventional forging, casting and machining.

Scaling Up Through Master Supply and Ecosystem Strategies

Norsk Titanium’s recent operational updates show that the Airbus relationship is framed by a Master Supply Agreement that defines terms for ordering and scaling multiple part numbers. This arrangement is intended to support a gradual ramp into serial production as additional components are designed or redesigned for RPD and cleared through Airbus’s internal approval gates.

The company has outlined an “RPD Ecosystem” approach that combines material qualification, machine deployment at customer or partner sites, and licensing of process know-how. Under this model, major aerospace manufacturers can integrate RPD machines directly into their production networks while continuing to source parts from Norsk Titanium’s own plants.

Reports indicate that this ecosystem concept is attracting interest from several large original equipment manufacturers in both civil and defense aerospace. For Airbus, it aligns with broader industry trends toward distributed, digitally enabled manufacturing cells that can be replicated across sites and continents.

As the Airbus work transitions from pilot runs to recurring shipsets, Norsk Titanium is adjusting its operations and capital spending to support higher utilization of its production centers. Company disclosures acknowledge that the ramp has taken longer than first anticipated but emphasize that alignment on roadmaps and milestones with key customers is now in place.

Certification Milestones Strengthen the Business Case

Moving RPD from proof of concept to production within Airbus has depended heavily on material and process qualification. In late 2025, data for Norsk Titanium’s RPD titanium alloys were accepted into the Metallic Materials Properties Development and Standardization handbook, the primary reference document used by many aerospace engineers and regulators.

Inclusion in this handbook allows designers to rely on standardized allowables when sizing and certifying RPD parts, rather than treating every application as a first-of-a-kind research exercise. Publicly available information from the company highlights this as the first time additively manufactured titanium material properties have been incorporated in that reference, creating a foundation for broader adoption across programs.

For Airbus and its tier-one suppliers, the combination of internal qualification, documented process control and recognized material data lowers barriers to using RPD on higher responsibility structures. As confidence builds, observers expect a shift from isolated demonstration components to families of parts redesigned specifically for the benefits of additive manufacturing.

The certification progress also positions Norsk Titanium for opportunities beyond Airbus, including work with North American primes and defense customers seeking to reduce risk in their metallic supply chains.

Implications for Future Aircraft Production

The decision by Airbus to bring RPD parts into production signals a broader change in how large commercial aircraft might be manufactured over the next decade. Additive manufacturing has already transformed many cabin and noncritical components; structural titanium parts, however, carry higher certification burdens and have been slower to transition.

As Norsk Titanium and Airbus move from qualification to industrialization, the experience gained in design, inspection, non-destructive testing and lifecycle assessment is expected to feed into future aircraft platforms. Analysts following the sector suggest that new narrowbody and widebody designs are likely to incorporate additive-friendly geometries from the outset, taking fuller advantage of RPD’s ability to consolidate parts and tailor stiffness, weight and load paths.

For travel markets, the near-term impact will be largely invisible to passengers, but incremental efficiency gains from lighter, more precisely engineered structures can contribute to lower fuel burn and emissions over the life of an aircraft. In a competitive landscape where airlines are focused on operating cost and environmental performance, even modest weight savings per aircraft can translate into significant advantages when scaled across large fleets.

With Airbus now taking RPD from proof to production, Norsk Titanium has moved into a critical phase in which execution, reliability and cost competitiveness will determine how widely the technology is deployed. The outcome will help shape the role of large-scale metal additive manufacturing in the next generation of commercial aviation.