On Friday, October 14th, 2016 in Varilhes, Ariège, France, Aubert & Duval and Mecachrome inaugurated their joint venture MKAD in the presence of customers, partners and colleagues.

Extending ERAMET Groupe’s subsidiary Aubert & Duval’s current titanium channel, MKAD has machining and surface treatment resources. On a single site, it integrates all end-of-flow operations through to shipment of finished parts.

With MKAD, Mecachrome and Aubert & Duval are completing the business combination of Aubert & Duval, UKTMP, UKAD and EcoTitanium to form a fully integrated channel for closed die-forged, aviation-grade titanium parts from mining through to the delivery of finished parts.

The goal of this industrial partnership in MKAD is to support our customers by creating an optimised, high-capacity Supply Chain for forged titanium parts and improving Buy-to-Fly and these products’ competitiveness. Moreover, MKAD’s creation enables MMecachrome and Aubert & Duval, which already have strong presence on the hard metal machining market, to enhance their expertise in this area and shore up their strategic positions on the latest global aviation programmes.

The first stone was laid in January and the first products made in June 2016

Construction was completed in line with the ambitious schedule. Just 9 months after work started on the building in January, four machines are running and the first references have been successfully industrialised.

Key dates

  • June 15th, 2015: joint venture, MKAD, created by Mecachrome and Aubert & Duval
  • January 4th, 2016: start of construction work on building
  • June 2016: start of machining activity, first trimmings
  • February 2017: start of finishing activities
  • June 2017: surface treatment chain comes on stream

Planned expansion

MKAD is a 7,000 m2 production unit in Varilhes, close to Aubert & Duval’s site in Pamiers, France. A second phase of work is in progress to increase the total surface area to 9,600 m2.

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