{"id":73259,"date":"2026-08-16T08:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T08:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/73259\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T08:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T08:47:08","slug":"lufthansa-technik-3d-prints-unsourceable-polymer-latch-in-titanium-voxelmatters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/73259\/","title":{"rendered":"Lufthansa Technik 3D prints unsourceable polymer latch in titanium | VoxelMatters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> Stay up to date with everything that is happening in the wonderful world of AM via our <a href=\"https:\/\/uk.linkedin.com\/company\/voxelmatters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">LinkedIn<\/a> community.<\/p>\n<p>Lufthansa Technik redesigned a damage-prone polymer latch for metal 3D printing after finding it could not source the part as a standalone spare, cutting a recurring maintenance cost tied to roller shutter assemblies on the Airbus A330, A340 and A380 aircrafts.<\/p>\n<p>The latch sits inside the roller shutter assembly and retains the roller brake and endcap in place. Repeated in-service wear caused the polymer version to fail, but OEMs would not sell it individually, forcing Lufthansa Technik to replace the entire roller shutter assembly at significant cost each time a latch broke.<\/p>\n<p>  <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Materialise-Lufthansa-Technik-02-340x277.jpg\" alt=\"Lufthansa Technik 3D prints unsourceable polymer latch in titanium\" width=\"340\" height=\"277\"  \/> <\/p>\n<p>Titanium redesign<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.voxelmatters.com\/lufthansa-technik-additive-manufacturing-center\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lufthansa Technik\u2019s additive manufacturing team<\/a> redesigned the component in titanium Ti6Al4V rather than reproducing it in polymer. The airline holds EASA Part 21.G and 21.J certifications, allowing it to design, manufacture and certify flight-ready parts in-house.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe original part was an injection-molded polymer component with a complex geometry,\u201d said David Rudolz, Project Engineer at Lufthansa Technik. \u201cIt was immediately identified as an ideal candidate for metal additive manufacturing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Materialise as production partner<\/p>\n<p>Lufthansa Technik selected <a href=\"https:\/\/www.voxelmatters.directory\/company\/materialise\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Materialise<\/a> to manufacture the certified latch, citing the supplier\u2019s EN 9100 certification for metal parts and its Metal Competence Center.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.voxelmatters.com\/learn-about-the-materialise-2026-outlook-from-ceo-brigitte-de-vet\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Materialise passed the required audit<\/a> to qualify as a Lufthansa Technik supplier for metal 3D printed parts, and the two companies coordinated on the manufacturing process, process stability requirements and production controls.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s been a strong partnership between Materialise and Lufthansa Technik for many years,\u201d said Rudolz. \u201cMaterialise is one of our preferred partners and was our first choice for this project.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The titanium latch is now flight-ready and in service. Its added strength extends the part\u2019s expected lifespan and allows Lufthansa Technik to repair the roller shutter by replacing only the latch rather than the full assembly.<\/p>\n<p>Materialise has since been named an official workbench for metal parts within Lufthansa Technik\u2019s supply chain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stay up to date with everything that is happening in the wonderful world of AM via our LinkedIn&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21169],"tags":[1643,1678],"class_list":["post-73259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lufthansa","tag-future","tag-lufthansa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}