Quick Summary
Additional Context
Internationally licensed maintenance, production and development organization Lufthansa Technik has replaced a damage-prone polymer latch on Airbus A330, A340, and A380 roller shutter assemblies with a redesigned titanium version, produced through metal 3D printing by Belgian additive manufacturing company Materialise. The new Ti-6Al-4V latch is manufactured under EN 9100 certification and is now flying on in-service aircraft.
The original latch, an injection-molded polymer component that retains the roller brake and endcap within the shutter assembly, repeatedly failed under in-service wear. Compounding the problem, OEMs would not sell the part as a standalone spare, forcing Lufthansa Technik to replace the entire roller shutter assembly at high costs every time the latch broke.
Rethink