MTC joins £38M DECSAM programme to scale sustainable aerospace additive manufacturing
Aaron Blutstein 19 January 2026 
MTC has joined the Digitally Enabled Competitive & Sustainable Additive Manufacturing (DECSAM) project. Led by Airbus, this £38 million, four-year UK aerospace programme will develop and deploy the latest additive manufacturing (AM) technologies, such as beam shaping and in-situ process monitoring, to make metal laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) additive manufacturing (AM) more cost-effective, productive and sustainable for flight-ready parts.
The project, which runs until June 2028 is a research and innovation project funded through Innovate UK, the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) and the UK Department for Business and Trade.
The project brings together 11 leading organisations covering aerospace OEMs, Tier 1&2 suppliers, SMEs and research institutes, providing full UK AM manufacturing chain coverage. The partners including Airbus Operations Limited (lead), Renishaw plc, ASTM International UK, Authentise Ltd, The Manufacturing Technology Centre Limited, GKN Aerospace Services Limited, Additive Manufacturing Solutions Ltd, APEX Additive Technologies Ltd, Domin Limited, University of Sheffield, and ToffeeX Limited.
Jacqueline Castle, Chief Technology Officer at the Aerospace Technology Institute commented: “Additive manufacturing can unlock new efficiencies in aerospace, lowering costs, optimising material use, reducing weight, and consolidating complex assemblies into single parts. DECSAM unites a strong consortium to accelerate adoption in civil aerospace, aligning closely with the ATI’s additive manufacturing strategy to drive future economic growth and sustainability.”
DECSAM will demonstrate an integrated, digitally connected AM supply chain, from alloy selection and build strategies to post-processing, inspection and factory scale-up. “In order to demonstrate AMs future cost competitiveness for aerospace applications”.
What DECSAM will deliver
To cut part cost, raise quality, and shorten design-build-test loops for aerospace applications, DECSAM is structured around four innovation pillars:
- Performance: new and improved alloys, multi-physics modelling and physics-driven design)
- Productivity: high-power lasers, beam shaping, advanced scan strategies, in-situ monitoring and closed-loop control
- Scalability: end-to-end digital thread, automated sustainable factory concepts, and efficient post-processing/inspection
- Application: Integration of technologies developed to demonstrate overall cost benefit on target product applications.
Planned outputs include ground and flight-test demonstrators, validated recycled/repurposed powder routes, widened powder specifications, verified parameter themes for quality and throughput, in-process monitoring software offerings, and guidance for routes to qualification and certification, all targeted at accelerating industrial exploitation.
