8/18/2019 3d Printing Breakthrough in Aerospace

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3d printing breakthrough in aerospace?

It has been almost a year since I published an article about 3d printing in

aerospace. Lot of things have happened since but there has not being a major

breakthrough yet. One of most notable breakthroughs has been in the space

industry which is not aected by reuirement no! bellow.

"owever as noted in the last years article there are still 3 main obstacles which

prohibit wide spead use# especially in the area of the aircraft structural

components$

!. %atigue and damage tolerance risk&. 'urface roughness (or di)culty of achieving the net shape*3. +rice

Later on one additional new consideration will be added.

Opportunities

 ,et still lot of smart people are investing time# eort and brain power to

overcome these problems. 'o here are some potential technologies and

companies (collaborative eorts* which can bring potential breakthroughs$

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141008203335-27440332-what-is-stopping-3d-printing-take-off-in-aerospacehttps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141008203335-27440332-what-is-stopping-3d-printing-take-off-in-aerospacehttps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/3d-printing-space-making-big-steps-forward-franck-mouriaux?trk=prof-posthttps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/3d-printing-space-making-big-steps-forward-franck-mouriaux?trk=prof-posthttps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/3d-printing-space-making-big-steps-forward-franck-mouriaux?trk=prof-posthttps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/3d-printing-space-making-big-steps-forward-franck-mouriaux?trk=prof-posthttps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141008203335-27440332-what-is-stopping-3d-printing-take-off-in-aerospacehttps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141008203335-27440332-what-is-stopping-3d-printing-take-off-in-aerospace

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!. Innovative -itanium +owder lectrical /eam 0elding lead by 12# called

the 4 TiPOW programme”, meaning Titanium Powder for Net-shape Component

Manufacture. In short the benefits woud be! ower cost titanium powder  woud be meted b"

eectronic beam meting  to the end product shape which woud not re#uire an" rewor$.The

tota in%estment is about &,'&M( and the end is e)pected b" *ebruar" +.

&. /ot isostatic pressing of the 0d printed Titanium parts after printing b" 1coa. In this againinno%ati%e process, parts woud be 0d printed from metas which ha%en2t been specified to the

shape which is not fina and then in a separate process pressed to increase the properties of 

the materia b" so caed /IP process. 1coa is in%esting a tota of +M( in the pro3ect which is

' times more funds than 45N and the consortium which is I guess the demonstration of their 

dedication.3. 35 printing of short carbon 6bre composite materials by 7revo# starting

with raw material such as 2eta'pire. It is not fully clea what the

technology is but judging by the fact that 2eta'pire is +2 thermoplastics

it is reasonable to assume that material is mouldable plastics with short

carbon or glass inserts embedded inside which is wounded on the 6lament

and can be 3d printed on the printer which look like not that muchdierent from they already look today. It is not clear how much 7revo Labs

are investing.

'o these are the 3 most promising technologies for 3d printing of aero structures

today. It would probably be 4the winner takes it all8 as all contender technologies

are very much dierent if something completely dierent does not come along.

Risks

In addition to the 3 risks mentioned above there is a fourth one which was very

clearly formulated recently by 5r /en 5utton from the 9anufacturing -echnology

:entre (9-:* in :oventry. In a nutshell increasingly comple; shapes of the

possible 3d printed metallic components present a challenge for an inspection.

7s inspection is at a very core of the damage tolerance principle of replacing

aircraft parts in service this is a very serious consideration. 'o my new list of risk

becomes$

!. %atigue and damage tolerance risk&. 'urface roughness (or di)culty of achieving the net shape*3. +rice!. Interestingly the survey does not mention

aerospace as the 3d printing application at all.

http://www.mining.com/web/gkn-aerospace-research-additive-manufacture-metalysis-low-cost-titanium-powder/http://www.mining.com/web/gkn-aerospace-research-additive-manufacture-metalysis-low-cost-titanium-powder/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQn6NMOWWWkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQn6NMOWWWkhttps://coaxicom.com/additive-manufacturing-and-materials-a-prime-focus-for-gkn-aerospace/https://coaxicom.com/additive-manufacturing-and-materials-a-prime-focus-for-gkn-aerospace/http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/project/4AC673CA-5677-49B1-96C9-1A6A8D34A088https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsnzgsEXT_Ahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsnzgsEXT_Ahttp://3dprint.com/93774/alcoa-ampliforge/http://www.plastics.gl/processing-misc/3d-printing-of-carbon-fiber-reinforced-materials/http://www.solvay.com/en/markets-and-products/featured-products/ketaspire.htmlhttp://www.themanufacturer.com/articles/aerospace-firms-should-consider-inspections-when-using-3d-printing/http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3117917http://www.mining.com/web/gkn-aerospace-research-additive-manufacture-metalysis-low-cost-titanium-powder/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQn6NMOWWWkhttps://coaxicom.com/additive-manufacturing-and-materials-a-prime-focus-for-gkn-aerospace/http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/project/4AC673CA-5677-49B1-96C9-1A6A8D34A088https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsnzgsEXT_Ahttp://3dprint.com/93774/alcoa-ampliforge/http://www.plastics.gl/processing-misc/3d-printing-of-carbon-fiber-reinforced-materials/http://www.solvay.com/en/markets-and-products/featured-products/ketaspire.htmlhttp://www.themanufacturer.com/articles/aerospace-firms-should-consider-inspections-when-using-3d-printing/http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3117917