TITAL active on Chinese Market
Having participated in the international aerospace trade fair „Airshow China" in November TITAL, the German specialist for titanium and aluminium investment casting, plans the next step in order to gain further ground on the Chinese market. In January the company based in Bestwig, Germany, held a number of workshops with various Chinese system manufacturers in the sectors of aircraft structure and aviation electronics. The aim is to convince the Asian R&D engineers of the modern investment casting process for aluminium and titanium, as alternatives to milling. According to Philipp Jerusalem, Marketing and Sales Director at TITAL „the trade fair mainly served to understand the Chinese supply structures of the local aviation industry and to identify and contact the system suppliers. In a next step it will be important to show the advantages of aluminium and titanium investment castings - tailored to the product segments of the individual companies."
TITAL pursues the strategic aim to strengthen its position as investment casting supplier on the Chinese market especially with regard to the new passenger aircraft C919. Since 2010 the C919 has been developed by the state-supported COMAC Group (Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China). The maiden flight is planned for 2014, and series production to start in 2016.
At the "Airshow China" which took place in Zhuhai, China from November 16-21, TITAL's presentation of aluminium investment castings, produced according to the patented HERO Premium Casting® Process found good interest among the specialist visitors. This process allows for a safe and reliable production of investment castings with casting factor 1.0. This special quality cannot be reached by any other casting process and can thus be considered equal to the one of milled parts. At the Airshow China - the only international aerospace trade show supported by the central Chinese government - TITAL impressed the specialist public with its large and complex castings. Thus TITAL as Europe's largest titanium casting specialist is in a position to manufacture parts of up to 300 kg (660 lbs) weight and diameters of up to 1.500 mm edge length.
The focus of the „Airshow China" is to give experts a room for extensive specialist and engineering talks. Philipp Jerusalem remarks: „The Chinese aviation industry likes to catch up with the Western world. So far, however, they miss the necessary technologies in their own country. Now we want to use our technological head start and sell our castings „made in Germany" to China. Our excellent certification status is here of considerable help." There are already some Chinese investment casting suppliers, but they do not reach the Western quality standards. „The stability of the manufacturing processes there does not at all show the same level. The metallurgical quality and dimensional accuracy of the castings are not stable."
TITAL's manufacturing processes however, comply with the high NADCAP (National Aerospace and Defence Contractors Accreditation Program) quality standards of the leading aircraft and engine manufacturers. The company regularly passes five different NADCAP certification processes with convincing results. For aviation companies such as Airbus and Boeing the global test institution monitors that common standards for so-called „special processes" are met. This may concern work flows in production and quality control. Here the modified technological or physical characteristics of the material are not directly visible, but can only be discovered by means of special measuring and analyses.
For five years TITAL has got a sales cooperation in China and meanwhile was able to win three national companies from the aviation industry as customers. Philipp Jerusalem comments: „We would like to further expand our commitment with the aim to become a casting supplier for the C919." COMAC has already received the first orders for the passenger aircraft C919. On the opening day of the „Airshow China" the consortium announced the orders for the first 50 firm purchase orders and the same number of options for the aircraft. The three top national airlines China Southern Airlines, China Eastern, and Air China are among the buyers.
For many years TITAL has organised national and international workshops such as those held in China in January 2011. These workshops address to designers and developers and are free of charge for the participants. TITAL was already present at Embraer in Brazil as well as at Kongsberg in Norway and TAI in Turkey. The next workshops at TITAL in English language will be held on April 12th-13th and September 13th -14th, 2011.