Alloy Additive marks one year inside ESA’s business incubation network

Alloy Additive GmbH completed its first year in Aachen, Germany, and its first year as a member of ESA BIC North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), the European Space Agency’s regional business incubation centre. The German entity marks Alloy Additive’s move into the European space supply chain, building on a company that started in Turkey.

The Aachen operation is developing large-scale titanium 3D printing for launch vehicles, spacecraft and propulsion systems, using a proprietary TIG-based wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) process. WAAM builds parts by depositing metal wire layer by layer with an electric arc, an approach that Alloy Additive positions as faster and more material-efficient than machining large titanium components from solid billet.

Components manufactured by Alloy Additive have passed static fire testing, flown beyond 100 km, the conventional boundary of space, and one set is currently in orbit. That flight heritage carries over from the company’s origins:

Alloy Additive emerged from the KWORKS accelerator in 2020, received seed funding from Türkiye’s TÜBİTAK the same year, and moved into Cube Incubation at Teknopark Istanbul in 2021, when it also joined the SAHA İstanbul Defence and Aerospace Cluster Association. Its WAAM system pairs an ABB robotic arm and positioner with a Lincoln Electric AC/DC heat source, printing parts up to one meter in diameter and 1.5 meters in height in titanium Ti6Al4V alongside nickel superalloys, stainless steel and aluminum alloys.

Through ESA BIC NRW, Alloy Additive GmbH is connecting with industry leaders, research institutions and technology partners in the European space sector while continuing to develop its titanium manufacturing process. The company frames Aachen as more than a German entity: its base within the ESA BIC network and the foundation for its next stage of growth in space manufacturing.