TITAL GmbH recently received a large order for aluminum and titanium structural components for the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB jet engine. The Trent XWB is the engine that powers the Airbus A350, the newest long distance passenger aircraft from Airbus which is scheduled to have its first test flight during the year 2012. The customer's prototype parts have already been delivered by TITAL. Overall, Airbus has received 560 orders from more than 30 international clients. The A350 stands in direct competition to Boeing's 787 Dreamliner which is currently passing the qualification phase and is scheduled to be delivered to its clients starting in 2012. According to experts the Trent XWB powered A350 is planned to use 28% less fuel than other medium distance jets of the latest generation.

The A350 platform is rather uncommon as it's only equipped with the Trent XWB. "Usually several jet engine manufacturers are involved in such a large-scale project", explains Philipp Jerusalem, Director Sales and Marketing at TITAL. This order represents a very particular case. "The full rate production will begin in 2014 and we think that starting in 2017 TITAL will deliver castings on an annual basis for more than 200 Trent XWB engines. This production rate is believed to be maintained for 20 years."

For this recent order TITAL will supply Hispano-Suiza the French jet engine gear manufacturer. Hispano-Suiza serves as a system supplier for Rolls-Royce in England. Additionally, both castings are machined and pre-assembled as administered by TITAL and the components are delivered to Hispano-Suiza ready-for-assembly.

The first 6 groups of the two structural components are already available at the customer's site as pre-production. They were produced ready-for-assembly at TITAL using the rapid prototyping process so that Hispano-Suiza was able to quickly confirm that the castings meet all required criteria.

In parallel with the pre-production effort, TITAL started the production of the casting tooling which is the basis for the full production of the aluminum and titanium castings. Martina Gerlach, Sales Manager in charge of this project: "After having completed the tooling and the production of the sample parts we have now received the approval from Hispano-Suiza to deliver the first production parts."

Hispano-Suiza and TITAL GmbH have fostered a good business relationship for many years. This is one of the reasons why TITAL received this major order after long negotiations with the French company.

Concurrent to this winning order, the internationally operating company has gradually strengthened its commitment in the aerospace sector. Philipp Jerusalem: "We see our biggest growth prospects within the next ten years in the jet engine area. With our strong partners from the aerospace industry we will gradually develop this segment."

In order to ensure sufficient production capacities for future orders in the new business segment, TITAL put a new furnace into operation at the end of 2008. This enables the production of large and complex titanium investment castings with a component size of up to 1.500 mm (60") and a part weight of up to 300 kg (660 lbs). TITAL invested more than 10 million Euros or 13 million US dollars into the modern furnace, equipment and facility.