Materialise 3D Prints a Certified Titanium Latch for Lufthansa Technik

A tiny polymer latch has been snapping inside Airbus A330, A340, and A380 roller shutter assemblies for years. Replacing it should have been simple, but OEMs refused to sell the part on its own. Lufthansa Technik had to swap the whole assembly every time it failed. That changed when the maintenance firm asked Materialise to 3D print a certified titanium replacement.

From polymer to titanium

The original latch was an injection-molded polymer piece with a complex geometry. It held the roller brake and endcap in place inside the roller shutter. In service, it wore out faster than expected. Because the part was not available as a standalone spare, Lufthansa Technik was stuck buying entire roller shutter units just to fix a single failed component.

David Rudolz, a project engineer at Lufthansa Technik, said the team saw the latch as an ideal candidate for metal additive manufacturing. Rather than copy the polymer design in metal, they redesigned it specifically for Ti-6Al-4V. They adjusted wall thickness, geometry, and elastic response so the titanium version would function correctly under the same loads.

Certification was the hard part

Designing a better latch was only half the challenge. Anything that flies has to meet strict aerospace standards. Lufthansa Technik holds EASA Part 21.G and 21.J approvals, so it can certify flight-ready parts in house. For production, it chose Materialise because of the company's EN 9100 certification for metal parts and the capacity of its Metal Competence Center.

Materialise passed a supplier qualification audit before production began. Engineers from both companies then coordinated on process stability, production controls, and quality checks. The result is a flight-ready titanium latch that is now installed on in-service aircraft.

Why this matters for MRO

The new latch lasts longer than the polymer version. When it does eventually need replacement, technicians can swap just the latch instead of the whole roller shutter assembly. That cuts both repair time and cost. For Lufthansa Technik, it also solves a sourcing problem: the airline no longer depends on an OEM that never sold the part separately.

This case fits a wider pattern in aerospace maintenance. Satair, an Airbus subsidiary, faced a similar problem with an A320ceo wingtip fence and eventually recertified the part in titanium using metal 3D printing. The U.S. Navy's Fleet Readiness Center East has also started printing discontinued components in house to keep aging aircraft operational.

Metal 3D printing works well here because aerospace maintenance often needs small batches of certified parts, not mass production. Traditional manufacturing requires tooling and minimum order quantities that make low-volume spare parts uneconomical. Additive manufacturing avoids both.

The bottom line

The Lufthansa Technik project is not about printing a flashy engine component. It is a practical repair part that keeps existing aircraft flying without forcing airlines into expensive full-assembly replacements. Materialise has now been named an official workbench for Lufthansa Technik's metal parts production, which suggests more projects are coming.

For anyone tracking industrial 3D printing, this is the kind of deployment that matters: a certified, in-service part solving a real sourcing problem. It is the unglamorous side of aerospace additive manufacturing, but it is also where the technology is paying its way.