Hardide Plc (LON:HDD) Chief Executive Officer Philip Kirkham caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss their ‘Approved Supplier’ status from Airbus
Q1: Now Phil, an announcement out today that Hardide Coatings has gained ‘Approved Supplier’ status from Airbus, can you explain for us the significance of this?
A1: Certainly, we absolutely delighted to have this today and it’s the completion of a long process with Airbus going back over 8 years. We’ve now got the, what they call, the industrial qualification process which has enabled us to have the Approved Supplier status and we can’t really overestimate the significance of this. All the previous work we’ve done over the 8 years, in terms of getting the actual technical approval of the coating back in December 2015 and all the development work is really a prelude to this and none of that really generates potential business until you’re actually approved to supply. So, this announcement today is really a culmination of all that and is really the key stage now enabling us to go forward commercially with Airbus.
We’re currently in discussion with a number of Airbus sites about specific components on a whole range of aircraft and the aerospace is obviously a key market for us and this should enable us to be seen more credible throughout the whole industry and open up some opportunities for growth in other aerospace companies other than Airbus.
We currently do business with people like BAE Systems and Leonardo Helicopters and to achieve this Approved Supplier status from Airbus is a really significant enabler for the company’s growth in the European and North American and global aerospace markets which all have enormous potential for the Hardide coating technology.
Q2: As you say, the Hardide-A tungsten-carbide coating has been approved as an alternative to hard chrome plating on specific Airbus components, can you tell us why Airbus and other aerospace manufacturers want to replace hard chrome plating?
A2: Certainly, well, hard chrome plating has been used widely within the aerospace industry for many many years. However, some of the chemicals used in the process of hard chrome plating have been banned under the European REACH regulations from September 2017, although we believe there’s going to be an extension to that that’s been granted by the European Chemical Agency but I don’t think it’s yet been approved by the European Parliament, but it’s highly likely to be. So, because of the health and safety concerns and the chemicals ban has effectively banned hard chrome plating and increasingly tight restrictions imposed from the USA on health and safety grounds on the use of hard chrome as well.
So, this opens up great opportunities for our Hardide-A tungsten-carbide based coating which has been developed over many years in conjunction with work we’ve been doing with Airbus. So, finding an alternative coating that has the same or better properties than hard chrome plating has not been simple and manufacturers have been struggling to find alternatives for many years and today there are a few alternatives and the most common one being called high velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) and some other spray coatings have been considered the best available. However, Hardide-A has been specifically developed for this application and provides several very significant advantages over HVOF and other spray coatings as it’s generated from the gas phase process and it has the ability to coat very complex geometric shapes and internal surfaces and has improved corrosion and fatigue-resistance and a low friction coating as well.
Back in December 2015, after a long period of trials and development work the coating was technically approved by Airbus as a potential to hard chrome plating. Since then we’ve been working very closely with the Airbus engineers to ensure the process of actually making the coating meets all the stringent specifications and requirements that Airbus demand. I’m delighted now that we’ve now proven that and succeed this full industrial approval for the whole complex process that we have to create Hardide and now, Airbus and component suppliers to Airbus are now able to place production orders on us for actual aircraft components. So, today is a great milestone really in the history of Hardide.
Q3: And the timing couldn’t be better?
A3: Absolutely, yes, and the aerospace industry is very buoyant and with increasing demand on aircraft. For example, the Airbus A320, the common single-aisle aircraft, the high volume one, they’re increasing the production rate up to 60 aircraft a month over the next couple of years. So, the aerospace industry is very buoyant and projected to increase in demand over the foreseeable future.
