AkzoNobel Aerospace Coatings has been awarded with the Sustainability Future Award from Airbus Defence and Space (ADS), in recognition of the successful qualification and delivery of a new, chrome-free aircraft primer in just six months.
The award was presented during Airbus Defence and Space’s Air Power Global Supplier Conference in Ottobrunn, near Munich in May. The Sustainability Future Award recognises the successful collaboration between the AkzoNobel and ADS teams, which enabled the primer to be qualified and brought into production within six months, while meeting Airbus’ stringent technical, operational and sustainability requirements.
The primer supports Airbus Defence and Space’s wider sustainability ambitions by helping reduce the use of hazardous materials in aircraft manufacturing processes, while maintaining the corrosion protection and durability required for aerospace applications.
Within the programme for Airbus, AkzoNobel demonstrated its commitment to rapidly scale production of its primer for multiple classes of aircraft and supply it globally as Airbus responds to future customer demand.
With ADS planning to increase production volumes across several aircraft programmes over the next three years, AkzoNobel will continue to work closely with ADS to support production speed, quality and sustainability performance as output increases.
Frédéric Perret, global key account lead at AkzoNobel Aerospace Coatings, said the award is recognition of a continuing partnership to make the aerospace industry more sustainable: “This award reflects the strength of our collaboration with Airbus Defence and Space and our shared commitment to advancing more sustainable aerospace manufacturing,” he said. “Qualifying and industrialising chrome-free technologies at this pace, while demonstrating the ability to support future production ramp-up, is an important milestone for the aerospace industry. Alongside innovations such as chrome-free technologies, we have also continued to strengthen our wider sustainability performance to become one of Airbus’ top performing suppliers.”
Image: AkzoNobel Aerospace Coatings
