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Collins Aerospace opens additive manufacturing facility, expands MRO capabilities

3D printing

Collins Aerospace operates a half-dozen additive manufacturing centers.

Collins Aerospace announced June 10 the opening of a new additive manufacturing center and expansion of its maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) capabilities at its Monroe, N.C., campus. The company, a Raytheon Technologies Corp. business, completed a $30 million expansion of the site in 2021 and has since invested an additional $15 million as part of a municipal and county economic development program.

The AM center currently has two 3D printers; Collins plans to add more in the future. The new facility joins the company’s existing global network of additive production centers in Iowa, Minnesota, and Singapore, along with additive research centers in Connecticut and Poland. The company built the centers to support the next generation of aircraft with advanced systems and optimized designs.

“Through a process of joining materials layer upon layer to make parts from 3D model data, additive manufacturing offers several key benefits compared to traditional manufacturing,” said Kevin Myers, vice president of operations at Collins. “By using additive manufacturing to produce aircraft parts and components, we can help reduce weight, costs, and time to market and provide more sustainable solutions for our customers.”

The company maintains a worldwide network of 75 MRO sites that serve its global customer base. Collins opened the 160,000-sq.-ft. Monroe facility in 2004. It serves more than 300 customers across the aerospace and defense industry and repairs more than 6,500 unique part numbers for commercial and military aircraft.