Eaton has opened a European Centre of Additive Manufacturing at its aerospace campus in Wimborne, UK, its third global additive manufacturing site and second dedicated to aerospace, giving customers localised, production-scale capacity to move complex, certified components from design to production faster and with more resilient regional supply.

The facility integrates design, engineering, printing and validation in a single environment and houses Eaton's largest metal additive manufacturing system, delivering up to twice the productivity of previous platforms for complex, safety-critical components.

Mike York, director of additive manufacturing and digital design, Aerospace Group at Eaton, said the company expects to expand the facility's capabilities based on customer requirements and operational readiness, anticipating use of titanium and electron beam additive processes as it works towards AS9100 aerospace quality certification.

The company's global manufacturing network spans multiple regions, providing dual-sourced, regionally aligned solutions that improve supply chain resilience and redundancy while reducing logistical delays for aerospace customers.

Eaton is an intelligent power management company founded in 1911 and headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, serving customers in 180 countries; its Aerospace Group supplies hydraulic, fuel, oxygen, electrical and motion control solutions alongside aftermarket support for commercial and military aircraft.

Tomasina Bailey, vice president, engineering, Aerospace Group at Eaton, said the expansion is enabling customers to move faster from design to production of certified components.

The investment reflects a structural push in aerospace and defence towards dual-sourced, regionally located manufacturing, reducing reliance on single-region supply for safety-critical, certified components, particularly as aerospace OEMs diversify beyond single-region suppliers following recent supply chain disruptions.

The timing aligns with rapid growth in aerospace additive manufacturing, projected to expand from $6.21 billion in 2025 to $7.5 billion in 2026 and reach $15.96 billion by 2030, as metal alloys displace polymers in structural, flight-critical applications.

For UK aerospace manufacturing, the site adds rare production-scale metal additive capacity as OEMs push suppliers to secure AS9100-qualified regional capability ahead of next-generation aircraft programmes.

The wider signal for the sector is that additive manufacturing is maturing from prototyping into certified serial production, making qualified, production-ready capacity a differentiator for suppliers competing for complex aerospace and defence contracts.

Source: ADS Advance / GlobeNewswire