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Thales Group to Help Drive Morocco’s Aerospace Industry with Industrial Competence Center for Metal 3D Printing | 3DPrint.com
Aerospace company Thales is building an industrial competence center for metal 3D printing in Morocco in order to develop “a highly capable ecosystem” in the country:
Last year, the government of Morocco launched an Industrial Acceleration Plan, aimed at boosting the country’s economy and creating a new, modernized industrial sector. The plan, which is being implemented over the period of 2014 to 2020, is expected to create half a million industrial jobs during that time. One major part of the acceleration plan is the further development of Morocco’s aerospace industry.
As we’ve been seeing again and again lately, 3D printing is changing aerospace. The technology is dramatically reducing the time and cost involved in manufacturing metal parts for aircraft and spacecraft, as well as making them faster, safer, and more efficient. Morocco’s aerospace industry has been growing quickly in the last few years, but it still has a long way to go in terms of staying competitive. A CNN report estimated, earlier this year, that approximately 20,000 more trained personnel, mostly machinists and technicians, will be required in the next four years, and the industry will need to up its manufacturing capabilities in order to produce more complex parts.
That’s where French company Thales Group comes in. Next year, construction will begin on a new industrial competence center for metal 3D printing in Morocco. The center is expected to be fully operational by 2018, and will significantly drive Morocco’s aerospace manufacturing capabilities forward…[FULL STORY]