Case Study: Eastern Airlines Technic Co., Ltd. achieves rapid, cost-saving on-demand aircraft parts production with Stratasys 3D printing

China Eastern Airlines Explores Additive Manufacturing for Aircraft Maintenance

Eastern Airlines Technic Co., Ltd., the maintenance arm of China Eastern Airlines, faced long lead times, high replacement costs and strict aviation safety requirements for cabin parts. After a 2015 incident with misprinted seat signs, the company turned to additive manufacturing and partnered with Stratasys, deploying Fortus® 450mc printers and ULTEM™ 9085 material to produce certified, high-strength interior components in-house.

Using Stratasys technology, Eastern Airlines Technic established an AM lab that has produced and installed over 300 finished parts—seat armrests, EFB supports, newspaper holders and more—cutting lead times from months to days and delivering substantial cost savings (EFB support: 85 → 3 days, 96% time savings and 72% cost savings; newspaper holder: 35 → 3 days, 91% time savings and 48% cost savings). Stratasys-enabled 3D printing made the company the first domestic airline to fly 3D-printed interior parts and supports plans to scale to hundreds more parts on future fleets such as the A350.

Eastern Airlines Technic Co., Ltd.

Chen Zhiyi

Additive Manufacturing Lab R&D Engineer