Collins Aerospace Opens North Carolina Additive Manufacturing Center

Collins Aerospace has opened a new additive manufacturing (AM) center and expanded its maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) capabilities at its campus in Monroe, North Carolina. The company completed a $30 million expansion of the site in 2021 and has since invested an additional $15 million as part of the Monroe City Council and Union County Board of Commissioners Magnet100 economic development incentive program. 

The new AM center in Monroe includes two 3D printers with plans to add more in the future. The company says this facility joins the company’s existing global network of additive production centers in Iowa, Minnesota and Singapore, and additive research centers in Connecticut and Poland, to support the next generation of aircraft with state-of-the-art systems and optimized designs.

“Through a process of joining materials layer upon layer to make parts from 3D model data, additive manufacturing offers several key benefits compared to traditional manufacturing,” says Kevin Myers, vice president, operations for Collins Aerospace. “By using additive manufacturing to produce aircraft parts and components, we can help reduce weight, cost and time to market, and provide more sustainable solutions for our customers.”

As a provider of maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) services for aircraft systems, Collins maintains a worldwide network of 75 MRO sites to serve its global customer base. Opened in 2004, Collins’ 160,000-square-foot Monroe MRO facility serves more than 300 customers across the aerospace and defense industry. The site repairs more than 6,500 unique part numbers for commercial and military aircraft — including actuation systems, helicopter rescue hoists and air management systems — and provides aircraft-on-the-ground services. 

Through its investments in the site, Collins has added new AM equipment to streamline operations, improve quality control and enhance employee safety. Collins has also increased the size of Monroe’s workforce, bringing on more than 70 new employees in the past year, and is continuing to hire for additional openings. 

“Our Monroe site is one of Collins’ largest MRO facilities in the world, and the repairs we provide are essential to keeping our airline and military customers’ aircraft in service,” says Mary DeStaffan, Monroe site general manager for Collins Aerospace.