Visions - Summer 2019 - 8

S T R AT E G I C I N V E S T M E N T I N T E R V I E W

Where does Sintavia and additive manufacturing play
a part in the aerospace business?
What Sintavia has done is to invest in an aerospace quality management system to the point where it can manufacture parts for
commercial aerospace applications. 3D printing has been around
for a while, but Sintavia is the first to actually invest in
the in-house quality resources needed to build 3D parts for an
aircraft.
There is no way that you can put a part on an aircraft that is
seven miles up in the air and not have 100 percent assurance
that that part is going to function for years without failure.
So, the quality requirements in aerospace manufacturing are extremely high - really the highest in the manufacturing world. Sintavia has been able to demonstrate to its OEM customers that it
can manufacture parts via additive manufacturing or 3D printing
that conform to their very, very strict quality requirements.

BRIAN NEFF
CEO, Sintavia

Our aerospace customers largely do not manufacture their own
products. They design them, they sell them, and they assemble
them, but the actual fabrication is done through the traditional casting and forging aerospace supply chain. What Sintavia is
going to do is displace that supply chain through the natural
advantages of additive manufacturing, in that parts that we manufacture are less expensive, faster, better designed, and cause
a lot less pollution to the environment.

What was it that made Sumitomo Corporation of Americas a partner that really fit with Sintavia?
One of the primary goals that we have at Sintavia is to displace the
traditional aerospace casting and forging supply chain. In order to do that,
we have to demonstrate quality, we have to demonstrate stability, we have to
demonstrate global reach. When we started talking to Sumitomo in the beginning
of 2018 and started learning about each other, I really liked what I saw.
I saw that they were the right partner in three important ways:
Firstly, they have a very strong global reach to every major market in the world.
Aerospace manufacturing as a whole is a global business, and having them as our
backer is very key. We can go into any market from Eastern Asia to Western Europe to Southeast Asia, and
they have a presence. We can rely on them to help us meet the right people and get in front of the right customers.
Secondly, they have a very strong expertise in aerospace and defense. We appreciate that, and beyond
that, they have expertise in other critical industries such as oil and gas. For me as a lifelong aerospace person, it's difficult to have access to some of these other industries. Because they have such
a strong presence there, we can leverage each other's strengths, which I think is very important. They
can rely on us to help with the technology of additive manufacturing, and we can rely on them for the
commercial aspects beyond just the aerospace industry.
Finally, they take a very long-term partnership approach. They're not about working with us for three
years and finding another option. In an industry where it takes about ten years to develop a new aircraft or jet engine, having that long-term development approach is very important to Sintavia.
Have you enjoyed working with Sumitomo so far?
Yes, I've enjoyed working with Sumitomo very much.
I find them to be very strong in terms of what they want.
More importantly, I enjoy working with Sumitomo because
they understand what the opportunity really is. They get
what this technology represents with aerospace, within oil
and gas and other industries. They have committed to me
that they want to work with Sintavia to really develop
and meet that opportunity.
8

visions

Summer 2019

Visions - Summer 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Visions - Summer 2019