Air Works, one of India’s leading independent MRO and aviation service providers, has joined hands with leading additive manufacturing-engineering services (AM-ESP) provider, Objectify Technologies, to serve the global aviation, aerospace, and defense industry by leveraging 3D technologies.
This alliance marks a strategic shift in Air Works’ business focus as the company looks to not only expand its portfolio beyond aviation to aerospace and defense but to also transition from its erstwhile role as an aviation services provider into an aviation solutions provider.
As part of the collaboration, both Air Works and Objectify Technologies will identify and pursue business opportunities in the aerospace and defense industry, including the requirements of commercial, private jet owners, or operators, globally.
Given their unique advantages, 3D technologies, especially 3D printing, has been witnessing increasing global adoption in recent years, especially in the aviation, aerospace, and defense industries.
3D printing uses a variety of complex, new generation compounds and polymers (3D materials) with special characteristics to offer extensive customization in product design including printing and production of parts/ sub-parts and even entire assemblies, which are either difficult, prohibitively expensive or cannot be manufactured by traditional manufacturing processes.
Compared to the traditional methods, which are both time-consuming and voluminous, 3D printing saves time, and money and suits the on-demand manufacturing.
Commenting on the strategic collaboration, D Anand Bhaskar, MD & CEO of Air Works said, “We are excited to join hands with Objectify Technologies – a domain specialist and the country’s leading additive manufacturing-engineering services player. 3D printing technologies are fast coming of age and seeing extensive adoption across the manufacturing industry. Increasingly, even global aviation, aerospace and defense industries are inching towards reaping complete benefits of this emerging technology.
He said this partnership with Objectify Technologies reflects their commitment to always offer the latest and the best in-class solutions to their customers in the aviation fraternity. “I am confident that this collaboration will benefit the entire spectrum of our customers across business and executive aviation, commercial airlines and the Defense sector.”
Bhaskar said the collaboration also signals the transformation of business on the part of Air Works, which has 70 years of rich aviation legacy, to address upcoming opportunities in the aerospace and defense sector, broadening our value proposition by investing in partnerships that allow them to offer cutting-edge technologies.
As per the current arrangement, while Air Works will manage regulatory compliances for civil and defense segments, Objectify Technologies will contribute with design and manufacturing capabilities. The arrangement also provides for both parties to also team up for exploring opportunities in other base materials, manufacturing technologies, and industry segments in the future.
“3D printing technology and materials are increasingly gaining relevance across industries given their good strength-to-weight ratio, excellent dimensional accuracy, strength and stiffness, lightness, wear resistance, good thermal performance, and non-corrosiveness,” said Ankit Sahu, Director of Objectify Technologies Private Ltd. As a pioneer, he said Air Works occupies a fundamental place in the Indian aviation ecosystem, and they are proud and privileged to partner with the country’s leading aviation services provider having a domain experience of over 70 years. “Our alliance with Air Works will put us in an enviable position to address the challenges of not just aviation but also those of the fast-growing aerospace and Defense sectors using our collective synergies.” Â
Objectify Technologies, which counts Pratt & Whitney, HAL, ISRO, Collins Aerospace, Indian Air Force (IAF), and DRDO as some of its clients, aims to serve the global aerospace industry in partnership with Air Works, to optimize their costs at a time when the industry is going through challenging times amid the COVID pandemic.