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Julien is about to turn 40 soon and has been working for Tirus International for more than 10 years. He studied engineering at the school EPFL in Lausanne in Switzerland and got a master degree in materials science, specializing in metals and alloys. Then, he spent few years in a R&D laboratory for the watch-making industry, mostly on precious metal alloys (improving existing ones or developing new ones) such as gold, platinum, palladium or rhodium. Most production processes met in this domain are the same as for titanium, but at a much smaller scale due to the very high costs of raw material.

Apart from his work, Julien is truly passionate about bikes and need to go cycle quite often to keep his mind clear. He discovers this attraction quite late; he was more than 20 y. o., compared to most of his friends who started cycling as kids. When he was a child, he would not even take a bike to go to school even if it was close to his home.

He started to like this sport when he first received a “decent” bike (i.e. a reasonably light road bike, no longer a cheap and heavy mountain bike) for his birthday around his twenties, and it felt so easy compared to what he was used to do with his old bikes, that he had the feeling to fly on the road. After that, he started cycling more and more often, always looking for new challenges, and this trend has never stopped since that time. He can still recall one of his greatest achievement on a bike. It is when he rode 2 “Haute Route” events (called by the organizers “the toughest amateur cycling races in the world”) one after the other in 2015.

He started in Nice, France, late August and rode through the Alps until he reached Geneva in Switzerland one week later. After only one day off, he left Geneva and rode through the Swiss Alps and the Dolomites until he reached Venezia in Italy early September. Within only 2 weeks, he rode 1’900 km, climbed 43’000 m (more than 5 time the Everest from sea level!), and experienced a variety of landscapes and weather conditions (he even had snow in the Dolomites during summer time!) that made his arrival in Venezia truly emotional.

If like me you are a novice on bikes keep reading as Julien is giving us some advice on how to choose a good bike:

“Pick the most expensive one “, he quotes… No, seriously, there is no such thing as “the best bike”, even though every single brand will try to convince you that their bike is the best one. You need to find the bike that suits your needs. There’s no point spending 10’000 USD in a bike; yes, they can be that expensive; if you’re only going to ride from your home to the local bakery to buy croissants on Sunday mornings…

For him, the best option is to go to your local bike shop, build a trust relationship with the staff there, and ask for their advice, based on what you intend to do on your bike. There will probably be several bikes matching your criteria so in the end you can take into account your personal tastes regarding look, color, accessories, …

Let’s talk about titanium in bikes and titanium in the Sport field…. As all things made out of titanium, there can’t be a “fully titanium bike”, many parts can’t be produced with titanium because it’s not feasible or just because it doesn’t make sense from a technical or practical standpoint (would you sit on a titanium saddle, for instance?). The only applications for titanium on bikes are the frame and fork.

There are very few brands offering titanium frames, though, and they are usually more expensive. Julien has always been a fan of carbon bikes for both technical and esthetical reasons, so no, if you propose him, he will not switch for a titanium bike. However, Julien thinks that titanium has a present in the sport field! Besides bike frames, there are already several applications, one of the most famous being golf clubs. However, he doesn’t see the sport field ever becoming more than a niche market, with relatively low volumes and high prices. This would really be for professional and people who want to gain efficacy depending on the sport you practice.

So, if you want to start cycling, first of all use your social skills to get friends with the local bike store manager and start building a team to go cycling in group! It helps a lot to motivate yourself. In addition, with the current health issues, this will keep you from using public transports and keep yourself in a good health! 😊

Written by Alexandra Baumann

Titanium was discovered in 1791 by William Gregor who was a British mineralogist and clergyman. Back then he was analysing sand in a river in Cornwall and he isolated what he called then “black sand” which is known today as ilmenite. After several manipulation, he produced an impure oxide from an unknow metal. He named it then “menaccanite”. 

Independently from this discovery, in 1795, Martin H. Klaproth, professor at Berlin university, identified the same metal. Then he was analysing “rutile” and found out it was the same metal Gregor found. Klaproth gave him the name Titanium, coming from the Greek Mythology which referring to the Titans who were there before the Greek Gods. He named it like this without knowing the fantastic properties of this new metal.  

However, we had to wait more than a century after Gregor’s discovery for the American Mathew A. Hunter who in 1910 produced Titanium pure at 99%.

Finally, in 1939 Wilhelm J. Kroll, metallurgist and chemist from Luxemburg, found a production industrial process using magnesium.

In 1957, VSMPO-AVISMA melted its first titanium ingots with the diameter of 100 mm and with the weight of 4 kg. Since then, we have developed various alloys in order to meet the market demand. New machines and presses have been built and VSMPO-AVISMA became the larger titanium producer in the World.

Written by Alexandra Baumann

Another challenge in the AM are the costs. The main one would definitely be the equipment and process control’s role. Here we identify, expensive equipment, high depreciation costs due to short depreciation time, low built rate and warm up and cool down time. In order to compensate this, we can imagine that larger series of production will decrease the costs of equipment’s components. Reaching a more mature technology level will increase equipment life time, multi-laser and higher laser power and scanning speed improve the build rate. However, bear in mind that these compensations can generate additional limitation or barriers like adding process and quality control electronics that will raise the machine price. The equipment can become obsolete more quickly due to fast technology evolution. Physical and metallurgical limits can be reached and internal stress and distortion appear if we increase the heating and cooling speed.

Then arise the labor’s role in AM economics which should be helped by automation and equipment improvement. Here the cost drivers can be file preparation, setup on control system, machine preparation and supervision and build volume removal, clean up. To compensate here, we could develop pre-defined process routes and open architecture of the software, have reliable system to reduce effort for monitoring and troubleshooting and introduce systems with automated removal of excess powder. However here as well there might be obstacle like lack of design engineers with requested skills, there might be an increase in the requests of the OEM’s for process control and data acquisition, or powder that must be recyclable several times.

Then, not the major cost driver but still one, we have to consider the material’s role in AM economics (here titanium powder). Low yield of the gas atomization process to satisfy PSD requirements, small quantities currently requested and storage are on one side of the balance.  On the other one, we can consider to put the gas to metal ratio more in favor of finer powder, see the emerging new cost-efficient manufacturing route, expect the market demand to grow fast and in larger volumes that would reduce costs. Develop multifunctional powder storage cabinet, while keeping in mind that gas cost can increase, and ensure the reproducibility of the characteristics and the properties of the titanium powder are also key requirements for AM technology industrialization. But in any case, manufacturing routes will remain complex and high tech in future, as well as the high requirements regarding powder chemistry, homogeneity and reproducibility.  

Powder bed technology

In addition to process parameters monitoring and registration, blanks manufactured with
powder bed technology request a set of finishing operations

Here are some typical requirements regarding those finishing operations:

HIP

• 100% of the blanks must be hipped to minimize internal porosity and voids

Finish machining

• Necessary to obtain the requested dimensional tolerances as well as surface roughness

Heat treatment

• Necessary to achieve the final desired functionality

Cleaning

• Necessary to remove unfused powder and residues

Bulk and surface inspection

• UST + FPI (eventually 3D tomography)

Geometry

• 3D scanning of each part

Conclusion

The actual fast-growing acceptance of additive manufacturing for metals is the results of more than 25 years of intensive R&D work

During the last 5 years, the sales of equipment for 3D printing of metallic parts exploded!

Several potential failure sources are still existing for powder be technology, requesting further developments on powder, equipment and finishing operations side

For the powder bed fusion technology, the largest cost driver, by far, and therefore a main growth barrier, is the equipment (process)

For the economics of AM technology, high requirements towards process parameters monitoring and finishing operations must not be underestimated

The qualification process for AM parts, especially for aerospace applications, is long, complex and costly, and the costs are borne by the parts manufacturer

Thank you for reading all 3 articles related to AM technology. All 3 were written by Christian Décaillet, our Director Marketing & Business Development.

Last week we introduced additive manufacturing in general, but now we want to identify the potential challenges related to this technology and performed some trials to detect the potential failures that power bed technology could generate. Below are the conditions provided to three 3D printing companies:

• Manufacture one same part in alloy Ti6-4 using the powder bed technology and a laser as heat source
• Each company received the same 3D CAD model of the part in a suitable digital format
• Each company could source the powder as it wanted
• None of the 3 companies was aware of who had requested these trials (an independent Technical Centre was involved in the process to secure anonymity and neutrality)

Comparison results

First of all, the powder used by the 3 different part manufacturers was characterized (look at the first picture attached to this article).

Comparing them, we can deduct that there is no significant difference in the particle size distribution of the 3 powder lots. But we identified that the lot of manufacturer B has higher average particle size and particles with irregular shape as well as pores are present in some particles.

The second area of control was to look at the thermal mass control during the printing process. This has a significant impact on the dimensional tolerances of the part (look at the second picture attached to this article).

Referring to the figure, it looks like significant differences appear between the manufacturers. The dimensional tolerances obtained after 3D printing do not fulfil the usual requirements for such parts and a finish machining operation is necessary to obtain the requested tolerances and the requested roughness. In addition, depending on the part geometry and process control efficiency, a heat-treating operation may be necessary.

We noted as well that cracking may occur at places where heat transfer is not efficiently managed and thermal stresses are generated. An option to prevent this can be to use inserts to better manage the heat transfer and reduce thermal stresses, but using inserts means consuming powder that will then be scrapped.

Zooming on the internal structure of the printed parts reveals significant differences between the manufacturers A and B, especially concerning inhomogeneities of the macrostructure depending on the location in the part, as base plate, rib or thin wall (look at thirst picture attached to this article). We can also mention that hipping, a thermomechanical treatment combining temperature and high pressure performed on the printed part, doesn’t modify significantly its microstructure.

Then a chemical comparison of the powder was done. The analyzed powder is a non-transformed one and was compared with the solidified one. There, we can notice that no major difference occurs between the two, which means that what we have in the original virgin powder is what we will have as solid in the part itself. However, we can still detect some abnormalities in the chemistry, which means that the powder was potentially contaminated. Conclusion, machines should be used with only one material type and better, one specific alloy only. The test result demonstrates that different alloys were used in the machine, which contaminated each other. Today, startups cannot afford to use one machine per material or alloy therefore following issues arise:

• High cost to clean the machines
• No production while cleaning up
• Pollution by other alloys

Once the part is printed, additional tests were run on 2 parts printed by 2 manufacturers. One of the most important is the fatigue test which here consist of a comparison of fatigue properties between 2 parts. The measures were done before and after hipping. Once the hipping is done, we see that both parts have similar properties in fatigue, contrary to before hipping, which is logical as there was small porosity in the original parts. Examining under microscope the surface of these voids, we can notice that before hipping the crack is generated where there was porosity. Once the hipping done, there are no more voids or holes, which has been confirmed by an additional test, a tomography by X-ray. Here results show that pre-hipped sample has a larger frequency of voids and a greater proposition of larger voids. Post-hipped sample shows a distribution of smaller voids, all below 0.0011 mm³ in volume, and 80% of the total void volume consisted of voids 0 – 0.03 mm³ in the pre-hipped sample.

So far hipping has been done in standards conditions. However, with future technology improvements, it will be possible to pilot heating and cooling speed within the pressured chamber which means that long term, we would be able to modify the properties of the parts by using a specific hipping process. The conclusion on this is that we can foresee a huge cost improvement potential thanks to combining temperature and stress effects. However, today this is still not fully under control at industrial stage and have to be improved to reach the optimum. Next week, we will post a follow up article to this one but more oriented on costs and comment on the challenges it can bring. Keep reading….

3D printing started in the 80s for polymer and early 90s for power bed fusion. However, we will have to wait more than 20 years to see an explosion of interest for the same.

As the interest for 3D printing increased, we have seen more and more companies developing this technology around the world. Thanks to this development, this will help to summarize data and experience to improve technology efficiency and reliability.

Over the last 5 years interest for the 3D printing of metallic parts exploded especially due to the quick production process and the constant need to be flexible and to produce “on-demand”.

Now, we are expecting a growth on the Power Bed Technology especially due to the necessity for the aerospace industry to lower the buy-to-fly ratio. We have noticed over the years an increase of institution

The last few years have seen an accelerated growth and adoption of additive manufacturing (AM) by several measures, most notably in industrial adoption and implementation for materials intensive applications. Sales of AM systems for manufacturing metal parts grew at a year-on-year rate of about 47% for the most recent data available (Wohlers report 2016). This is reflective of greater interest and acceptance of the industrial manufacturing community for AM as a standard technique. This acceptance is the product of 25 years of intensive research and development. The first papers on powder bed fusion AM for metals were published in 1993. A comparison between these early papers and the recently published work documenting the properties of parts in titanium or nickel alloys produced using commercially available powders and equipment shows the progress that the material processing community has driven and which serves as the foundation for accelerating growth in applications. Nevertheless, despite all this euphoria that surrounds this technology, several technical or economic barriers still limit its expansion.

When it comes to equipment sold, even though EOS remain one of the key player on the market, some other companies have arisen. Certainly, due to new technologies being developed, there was an increase of 80% between 2016 and 2017 in regards to material sold. Considering the world market, some of those producers are from China and we have to keep in mind that they can offer relatively low-cost metal AM systems.

How would an ideal scheme for the future of AM technology work today? If we look closer to the process, it should start with an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). Ideally, we would send the 3D model by mail to the manufacturer who would produce the part and delver it ready to the customer. But this would be in an ideal world and next week we will post an article that shows some challenges we faced. Keep reading next week for more details….

Dmitri Gromovich was born in 1968 in Salda in the Sverdlovsk region in the Ural. Where VSMPO-AVISMA Corporation was established in 1941. He spent his childhood in this lovely town but was dreaming of airplane and travel and soon realized he had to fulfill his dreams. In 1990 he studied at the Pilots School where he still remembers the feeling of his first flight. Having this massive engine piloted at the top of his fingers might be one of his most memorable souvenirs. Then he moved to St-Petersburgh where he successfully graduated from the Academy of Civil Aviation in 1996. He was then 28 years old and ready to take over the world.

During 12 years he flew on various airplane from the Yakovlev 18T or 40 to the Antonov but the most memorable one maybe the Russian Tupolev 154. This airplane was a three-engine medium-range narrow-body airliner that could fly 185 passengers and it was not the safest plane to fly with. Talking about it he actually experienced a major issue with the radar on his last flight while going through a thunderstorm in the middle of the night. Unbelted passengers for sure still remembers it as well but Dmitri, with his lifetime experience made it through. Even though he managed the situation he recalls having his knees shaking once back on the ground and realizes he must have had and angel watching him that day.

Unfortunately, due to the economic situation in Russia in the late 90s, Dmitri, couldn’t fly anymore and came back to his childhood hometown. While waiting to find another position as a pilot, he started working for VSMPO which just newly opened the Export Trade Department to promote TI products to the World Aerospace and Industrial Market. This was a challenging position and he truly enjoyed making it work. Back then VSMPO was becoming a major player on the Titanium Market and a lot had to be done to get all certifications and contacts to sell Titanium products around the World. During one of his business trips to get VSMPO titanium well known he ended up in Japan and for a Russian Citizen who started to go around the globe was like landing on a different planet.

While working in Salda, he met Natasha who was a Senior Sales Manager at VSMPO and who would become his wife. He as well stayed at VSMPO as he sees it as a constantly evolving International Company. It is now well established in the Titanium Industry and is very well known in the Aerospace World. It’s a pride to think that a piece of VSMPO is almost on each airplane that fly around the World and to realize you are part of the team who made it work. Titanium is a formidable metal, light, strong, reliable, efficient with a defiantly bright future.

Coming back on his first years at VSMPO, he was definitely impressed by watching the process how Ti ingots were transformed into heavy truck beam forgings for B-777 on the unique 75’000 tons press which is the largest in the world.

Then 8 years ago, the Gromovich Family had the opportunity to move to Switzerland to work at Tirus International SA which is part of the VSMPO-AVISMA Group. He came to Lausanne with Natasha and their little girl who was almost 5 years old. This was the opportunity for him to improve his knowledge and to share his experience with others and in the meantime to get closer to the market he was responsible for. It was a great chance for him and his family to accustom to a different “European” way of thinking and working.

Dmitri enjoys living Switzerland at the time being and hope to still be able to bring his expertise to the TI market and to the VSMPO-AVISMA Group for many years to come.

Written by Alexandra Baumann

AVISMA in Berezniki, Perm Territory, which is part of VSMPO-AVISMA Corporation since 1998, found a way to reduce dust emissions by 500 times.

Since 1960 AVISMA has been producing titanium sponge for the titanium industry. For over 30 years the company grew significantly and in early 90s made its first step into global economy. At the end of the 20^th century, both VSMPO and AVISMA formed a group of companies, the Corporation, in order to have a common integrated process chain.

Today, AVISMA, implemented a technical solution that made possible to reduce dust emissions into the atmosphere from 50 tons to 100 kg per month.

The project was implemented in a titanium slag and titanium-containing charge production workshop. Its main equipment is two ore-thermal furnaces, in which titanium-containing slag is melted from ilmenite. The exhaust gases are filtered to reduce emissions. The fine gas cleaning unit (UTOG) purifies the exhaust gases of one of the furnaces.

The company's specialists installed a section of the gas duct and transferred it for cleaning through the UTOG and the second furnace. Now over 99% of the dust from the exhaust gases is captured by the filter unit. As a result, the emission of solid substances into the atmosphere was reduced from 50 tons to 100 kg per month, and dust containing titanium particles are returned to production.

For VSMPO-AVISMA, reducing the impact on the environment is one of the main production tasks, in addition to the goal of saving nature, which will reduce the cost of “environmental” payments.

In 2019, VSMPO-AVISMA Corporation allocated more than 2 billion roubles (about 30 Mio$) to environmental activities. The Corporation has been following a strong environmental policy to efficiently use the product waste and mitigate accident risks with their environmental impact. Its staff is regularly trained in ecology with the objective to enhance their environmental awareness.

As environmental issues have been coming a main topic in the today’s economy, the Corporation will continue focusing on this topic in the future and even reinforce its commitment to “Go Green”.

The history of Verkhnaya Salda Metallurgical Production Association (VSMPO) dates back to July 1, 1933, when Plant No. 45 was put into operation near Moscow to become the leading supplier of aluminum and aluminum alloy mill products for the developing aircraft-building industry in the Soviet Union.

Indeed, from the very beginning the plant was kind of the testing area for mastering of the scientific theories and engineering processes in the course of industrial production. Under the direction of S. M. Voronov, Chief Metallurgist, new alloys were developed.

In 1940, the plant had increased its production yield by four times compared to 1936.

The first bombardments of the plant in July 1941 made it necessary to take the extraordinary decision to build the alternate plant in the Urals. In October 1941, the State Defence Committee of the USSR decreed to evacuate the plant to the town of Verkhnaya Salda.

The post-war period challenged the company staff to master and produce products of the much higher quality for application in the state-of-the-art aircraft models, including jet aircraft.

Under the guidance of V.I. Dobatkin, a famous scientist, Doctor of Engineering, the company had developed the process and mastered production of large ingots by continuous casting. The first Russian hollow sections, thin-walled tubes and large-size die forgings were produced at VSMPO.

Development of aerospace equipment and foundation of the powerful Russian submarine navy required application of the new materials providing wider capabilities and meeting strict requirements for operational performance. TITANIUM was one of such materials.

On June 21, 1956, the Council of Ministers of the USSR had set the historical target for the company: to start large-scale production of ingots and semi-finished products from titanium alloys.  In February 1957 the first titanium ingot with the diameter of 100 mm and with the weight of 4 kg was melted at VSMPO.

In 1959, the press-forging facility was put into operation equipped with unique horizontal and vertical presses, among which was the most powerful forging press in the world with the capacity of 75.000 ton. The growing demand for high-quality products produced by the company called for expansion of production. Vast investments were made in reconstruction of production facilities. 

In 1966, new rolling facility was put into production for manufacture of titanium and stainless-steel sheet and plate. In 1968, the new melting and casting shop was brought into production for manufacture of large-size titanium ingots for application in the atomic submarines of the latest generation. Great work was performed on development, improvement and launching into production of the new titanium alloys for specific aerospace and shipbuilding projects. Essentially, the plant has become not only the large production facility, but also one of the leading research and development centers in the field of titanium production.

On January 18, 1971, the plant personnel were awarded with the Order of Red Banner for mastering of the new technologies. 

In 1976, the largest titanium ingot in the world with the weight of 15 ton was melted at the plant.

But it wouldn’t be fair to ascribe all the success and achievements of the company staff only to titanium. Long-length aluminum panel and section, large-size aluminum alloy die forging, die forgings from steel and nickel-alloys – this is the incomplete list of “non-titanium” VSMPO products. Mill products manufactured at VSMPO were used in such projects as space complex “Soyuz  – Apollo”, space shuttle “Buran”, launch vehicle “Energy”, huge transport airplanes АN-124 (“Ruslan”), АN-225 (“Mria”) – almost in every aerospace project of the former USSR as well as in shipbuilding, power engineering, chemical, pulp-and-paper and other industries.

In 1983, for important contribution to development of the domestic aviation metallurgy VSMPO was awarded with the Order of October Revolution.

By the end of the 80s, VSMPO has become not only the significant domestic producer, but the world’s largest supplier of semi-finished titanium products. The amount of titanium ingots melted at VSMPO was 1.5 times more than that produced in the rest of the world!

In 1992, in the course of the all-round conversion process, Vladislav V. Tetyukhin was elected the Director General of VSMPO. He has developed the bold strategy for the company integration into the global economy to ensure maintaining of the unique production under conditions of extreme instability of the domestic business system. VSMPO could rely only on its own strength: take credits, make investments into development and reconstruction of production in accordance with market requirements.

In August 1993, the Quality Assurance System (QAS), introduced at VSMPO, was certified by the German company TUV-CERT. At the same time, certification work was carried out with other European and American aircraft and engine building companies: Boeing, Airbus, General Electric, SNECMA, Rolls Royce, Pratt & Whitney and others. As of January 1, 2003, VSMPO held 185 certificates for all the main production lines. 

A significant factor enabling the company to maintain its position at the world market is the close partnership with JSC AVISMA (Berezniki, Perm region) – the world’s largest sponge titanium producer. The established in 1998 VSMPO-AVISMA production-engineering corporation allows to pursue the joint engineering and marketing policy.

Up to 70 % of VSMPO titanium products is exported. All in all, the company delivers products to 1500 Russian customers and 260 foreign companies from 39 countries. At the global titanium market VSMPO has built up the reputation of the efficient supplier of the high-quality products. At present, in terms of volumes, VSMPO is number one titanium supplier for Airbus Industries and number two - for Boeing.

In 1997-2001, VSMPO’s export was comparable to that of all the US and Japanese companies. In 2002, the US companies exported 9000 ton of titanium products, Japanese companies - 7200 ton, while VSMPO - 10538 ton. It will only be fair to say that “Boeing runway starts in Verkhnaya Salda”.

Along with titanium semi-finished products, VSMPO is expanding production of products from aluminum alloys, die forgings from heat-resistant nickel alloys and high-strength steel. We still can manufacture products that can be reasonably called unique. Where else in the world is it possible to make a truck beam forging for А380 landing gear with the weight of 3.5 ton!

 Tirus International Business Development joined Russian VSMPO colleagues at the exhibition about Additive Manufacturing, Formnext in Frankfurt. Within the last 5 years, Formnext has become the leading global exhibition and conference on additive manufacturing and the next generation of intelligent industrial production. It is where experts from a wide range of industry sectors, such as automotive, aerospace, mechanical engineering, medical technology, electrical engineering, and many more, come together to discover additive manufacturing, industrial 3D printing, and innovative production technologies for themselves. Tirus and VSMPO participants met with a large number of specialists of different sectors as 3D printing machines manufacturers, designers, software developers as well as powder manufacturers. Ensure an effective technological watch to anticipate future developments in the industry, especially on the manufacturing side, is a key responsibility of Tirus and VSMPO Business Development team.

Tirus International Sales & Marketing as well as business development specialists attended the International Titanium Association (ITA) 2019 annual conference in Mobile, Alabama. At this occasion many meetings were organised with existing and potential customers from all over the world. This conference is also “the place to be” to get information about market trends and new technologies as well as key aerospace OEM’s expectations and future vision, by attending specific presentations organised during the 3 days of the conference. With about 1000 participants, ITA offers a large number of opportunities for networking and customer relationship reinforcement.

This year again, VSMPO-AVISMA participated to the 53^rd Le Bourget Airshow, one of the oldest and largest air shows in the world. As with each edition, we could see and discuss with our business partners the newest developments and technologies used in the aerospace industry, such as aircraft engines and airframes, navigation technology, aircraft interiors as cabins and seats as well as latest generation assembly technics. Over the years this show has become one of the most important international platforms in the aerospace industry. About 150 aircrafts models were presented. Many of them showed their skills during the daily flying demonstrations in the afternoon which gives aircraft manufacturers the opportunity to demonstrate their technical expertise to the public.

During the first 4 days of the airshow, reserved for professional visitors, Tirus International SA and VSMPO-AVISMA marketing and sales team conducted many meetings with existing and potential customers to secure the future growth of our current Business and reinforce the good relationships with our customers.

For the occasion, we had a brand-new booth exposing our latest products and the ring manufactured in our Plant in Salda which is one of the largest that can be produced. Over the years, VSMPO-AVISMA invested in maintaining its production to the highest rate and quality. We aim to cover the majority of our customer needs and are proud of the work done by all our team members, from manufacturers to sales and marketing teams.

The World Conference on Titanium that is happening every 4 years took place this time in Nantes in France. Spending few days in this stunning city surrounded by history, it is in Nantes in 1532 that the Duchy of Britany was attached to the Kingdom of France, was a memorable experience for all our VSMPO-AVISMA and Tirus International team members.

Back to the main topic, this Conference was mainly focusing on R&D. Many of our colleagues had presentation and were successful in sharing their knowledge on Titanium and different alloys. It was the opportunity to get in touch with various people from across the globe all involved in improving the use of this incredible metal. This event ended up in a nice Gala Dinner sponsored by VSMPO-AVISMA and which took place at the “Ile des Machines”.