Here is a story every equipment owner will recognize. A small plastic latch inside an aircraft galley roller shutter kept wearing out. When it failed, the airline could not buy a new latch, because the supplier only sold the complete roller shutter assembly. One worn part meant replacing the whole thing, again and again. This month, Lufthansa Technik decided it was done playing that game. Its engineers designed a replacement latch in house and had it 3D printed in titanium.
The latch nobody would sell
As reported by 3DPrint.com and Aviation Week in late August 2026, the part is a latch for the galley roller shutters used on Airbus A330, A340, and A380 widebody aircraft. The original was an injection molded polymer piece with complex geometry that kept wearing out, and because the supplier would not sell the latch on its own, every failure forced a full shutter replacement.
Lufthansa Technik's team identified the latch as an ideal candidate for metal additive manufacturing. The design, optimization, and specification work happened in house, and the printing was outsourced to Materialise and its Metal Competence Center. The new latch is printed in Ti6Al4V titanium using laser powder bed fusion, produced under an EN 9100 quality process, and certified through Lufthansa Technik's own EASA Part 21.G and 21.J approvals. That last piece matters: in aviation you cannot simply print a part and bolt it onto an aircraft, and Lufthansa Technik is one of the few organizations with the certification authority to close that loop itself.
The result flips the usual economics. Instead of buying an entire shutter assembly every time a thumbnail sized part wears out, the airline swaps in a titanium latch that should outlast the rest of the mechanism. If it ever does fail, the replacement is a print job, not a procurement project.
I need a replacement part but the manufacturer only sells the whole assembly. Can someone 3D print just the broken piece?
Yes. In most cases a shop can 3D scan the broken piece, rebuild it in CAD, and print only the component you actually need, often in a tougher material than the original. This is one of the most common jobs we run at DC Additive Pros. Manufacturers bundle small wear parts into large assemblies because it simplifies their catalog, not because the parts cannot exist on their own. The process is straightforward: scan or measure the worn part, correct the geometry back to its intended shape, pick a material that addresses the reason it failed, and print. Our 3D scanning and reverse engineering service exists for exactly this situation.
Why put titanium where plastic used to be?
Most of the time, 3D printing in maintenance goes the other direction: metal parts get replaced with lighter, cheaper polymer prints. Lufthansa Technik went from polymer to metal because the failure mode was wear: that particular plastic part, in that particular duty cycle, wore out faster than the assembly around it. A titanium version costs more per part, but it removes the repeat failures, the labor, and the wasted shutter assemblies that came with each one. When a grounded aircraft or an idle machine costs real money per hour, the most expensive version of the part is often the cheapest solution.
The same logic applies at every scale, from data center hardware to lab equipment to decades old machinery: the wear item the manufacturer never sold separately is the part that keeps taking the whole system down.
Can a 3D printed replacement part be stronger than the original part?
Yes. When the replacement is printed in a material selected for the actual failure mode, it can outperform and outlast the injection molded original. The key is diagnosing why the part failed. A bracket that snapped needs impact toughness. A latch that wore out needs hardness and abrasion resistance. A clip that sagged near a hot component needs heat deflection, which is where high temperature polymers earn their keep. Not every part needs titanium: for many industrial replacements, a carbon fiber nylon, PCTG, or a high performance polymer like PEEK or ULTEM is the right answer at a fraction of the cost. That is the range we work in every day through our PEEK and ULTEM printing service.
One honest caveat: aircraft parts are a special case. Parts that go on an aircraft need certification paths that most shops, ours included, do not hold. For your facility equipment, production line, lab, or ground based machines, no such barrier exists, and the playbook Lufthansa Technik used is available to you today.
What this means for your equipment
The takeaway from Episode 84 is simple: "buy the whole assembly" is a policy, not a law of physics. If a discontinued or bundled part is holding your equipment hostage, send us the broken piece. We are a US based shop in Rockville, Maryland working in engineering materials from ABS to PEEK. Reach out at info@dcadditivepros.com or start at dcadditivepros.com and we will tell you honestly whether your part is a good candidate.
Frequently asked questions
The manufacturer discontinued my part. Can you make one from my broken part?
Yes, in most cases we can. We 3D scan or measure the broken part, rebuild the geometry in CAD, and print a replacement in a material suited to how the part is actually used. You also get a digital file, so future replacements are a reorder, not a search.
Is it legal to 3D print a replacement part for equipment I own?
Generally yes: making a functional part to repair equipment you own is a well established right. Exceptions exist for parts covered by active patents and for regulated applications such as aircraft, which require certified approval paths. This is general information, not legal advice.
What material should a 3D printed replacement part be made of?
It depends on why the original failed. Wear calls for hard, abrasion resistant materials, impacts call for tough ones like ABS or carbon fiber nylon, and heat calls for high temperature polymers like PEEK or ULTEM. A good shop will ask how the part failed before quoting a material.
How long does it take to get a custom replacement part 3D printed?
For most polymer replacement parts, expect days rather than weeks. Simple parts can often ship within a week, while complex reverse engineering projects take longer. Full assemblies from an OEM can carry multi week lead times, so printing usually wins on speed.
DC Additive Pros is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Lufthansa Technik, Lufthansa Group, Materialise, Airbus, or any other company mentioned in this article. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. This article reports on publicly available industry news.