A new manufacturing technology – the Very Thick Plate Stretcher developed by Arconic– is complete. The Stretcher produces highly-differentiated aerospace and industrial plate. The investment in the Stretcher is backed by customer contracts, including one with Airbus, valued at approximately $1 billion. The project was completed on time with an investment of approximately $150 million, approximately $40 million under budget.

Located at the company’s facility in Davenport, Iowa, the Stretcher improves the performance of thick aluminum and aluminum-lithium plate in aerospace and industrial applications. The stretching process reduces stress introduced into the plate as part of the manufacturing process, resulting in a part that is more easily machined and processed by customers.

In aerospace, the Stretcher will not only enable Arconic to service the existing plate market, but also allow airframe builders to make large wing ribs, fuselage frames and bulkheads in new sizes and thickness. For example, one of the challenges composite wings face as they get larger is strength and stiffness, and the aluminum plate from this Stretcher will allow aircraft manufacturers to make aluminum wing ribs to address that issue. In the industrial market, plate from the Stretcher can be used in manufacturing molds and chambers for applications such as semiconductors.

“This investment was made to expand Arconic’s leadership in the aerospace market and create profitable growth in attractive industrial markets,” said Arconic Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Klaus Kleinfeld. “The Stretcher allows Arconic to offer a variety of new products: in aerospace, we can now help aircraft engineers push the boundaries of design and performance. In other industrial applications, such as semiconductors and consumer electronics, Stretcher material helps increase productivity and reduce cost. In both cases, Arconic will help create demand that we are uniquely positioned to meet. And making all of this possible is our team in Davenport, who delivered this massive project on time and $40 million under budget.”

Arconic’s Davenport facility is currently commissioning the Stretcher, and has begun qualifying material for its customers.

Aerospace Applications

In aerospace, the Stretcher material offers Arconic customers more design freedom and increased productivity. In addition to enabling the production of the largest high-strength monolithic wing ribs in the industry, the material from the Stretcher will also allow aerospace engineers to design aircraft in new ways, because plate of this size and scale is currently not available on the market. For example, Arconic’s Stretcher material allows airframers to create single-piece parts, which eliminates the need to join multiple pieces together, resulting in better production efficiency and lower weight.

Product shipments to aerospace customers are expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2017.

Airbus was the first aerospace customer to include material from the new Stretcher in the $1 billion contract announced last year. Stretcher material is also a part of an agreement Arconic has with AMI Metals to support their contract with Lockheed Martin for production of the Joint Strike Fighter.

Industrial Applications

The Stretcher can be used to make some of the thickest, longest and widest plate for plastics manufacturing molds and on manufacturing chambers for the consumer electronics and semiconductor industries. For example, semiconductor manufacturers can use the thicker plate to increase the size of their manufacturing chambers, allowing them to make larger and/or more chips in the same amount of time, increasing productivity and saving cost.

Product shipments to industrial customers are expected to begin in the second quarter of 2017.