Austria-based voestalpine Group has revealed its plan to invest in a new production facility that will manufacture various aerostructures at its Kapfenberg site, which is currently operated by its group company Böhler Schmiedetechnik.

To be built with a €30m investment over the next two years, the proposed facility will produce highly stress-resistant engine mounts, wing and fuselage components, as well as landing gear parts and other components.

The facility will also be specifically designed to meet the growing demand for extremely high load-bearing, weight-saving structural parts in titanium and special steels used in aircraft construction.

Operations at the fully automated facility is scheduled to begin by 2019.

Voestalpine management board member and special steel division head Franz Rotter said: “With an average annual growth rate of over 3%, the aerospace industry demonstrates a clear and continuing upward trend.

“In order to consistently extend our leading position in this technologically extremely challenging market, we are increasingly investing in development and ongoing improvements to the quality of our products and processes.

“Investment in an additional state-of-the-art, fully automated production facility, which fully meets all Industry 4.0 parameters, marks an important step towards digital data collection throughout the entire manufacturing process for aerospace components at our site in Kapfenberg.”

"The aerospace industry demonstrates a clear and continuing upward trend."

Voestalpine’s special steel division currently has 160 sites worldwide and provides tool, high-speed and valve steels, as well as powder materials, nickel-based alloys, titanium and other steels.

Last December, voestalpine announced its decision to invest €40m in a new high-tech forging line for the production of high-quality pre-materials for aircraft components.

Image: Voestalpine to build new aerostructure production facility in Kapfenberg, Austria. Photo: courtesy of voestalpine.