ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING | AEROSPACE
Part of building this trust is
demonstrating a level of repeatability
that can provide the basis for industry
standards. Repeatable performance
simpli es quali cation and enables
the development of process
speci cations that can be certi ed
as easily as a more traditionally
produced part.
To further increase accessibility,
we have identi ed the need for a
product speci cation and quali cation
data available in the public domain
that meets the expected standards of
the aerospace industry. For aircraft
interiors, we have worked closely
with America Makes, the US Air
Force, the National Institute of Aviation
Research, and the FAA (Federation of
Aviation Administration) to produce
the Aircraft Interior Solution (AIS).
This package provides customers
with all the information necessary to
manufacture parts with ULTEM 9085
resin that will perform with highly
consistent results.
While certi cation is crucial,
having the capacity to produce high
performance thermoplastic parts that
can be fully characterised and trusted
to have consistent mechanical and
geometric properties is also vital. If a
lightweight 3D printed thermoplastic
part can perform in the most
demanding and rigorous applications
like a traditionally manufactured
counterpart would with its additive
bene ts of design freedom and supply
chain exibility, it’s easy to see why
aircraft manufacturers are increasing
their use of FDM technology within the
production process.
These are just some of the
developments that underscore
the exciting turning point that the
industry is at right now – where the
technical maturity of FDM machines
and materials is enabling aerospace
manufacturers to move beyond
prototyping and tooling applications
and into the production of certi able
production parts at a scale rapidly
increasing year on year. Indeed,
there are already tens of thousands of
interior aircraft parts ying today that
have been produced using FDM.
AM is already having a signi cant
impact in use cases where retro tting
or reducing manufacturing lead
times are a priority. When we look
at the needs of the industry today,
the bene ts of AM are not just felt in
prototyping
or concept
vehicles, but
in changing the
economics of part
production.
Traditional inventory and part
production can be time and cost
intensive, and what we frequently
see in the industry is stockpiling of
20 years’ worth of spares when a part
goes out of mass production in order
to avoid the expenses of retro tting.
AM can lead to a much more ef cient
approach, with the digitisation of
spare parts allowing much greater
exibility for operators.
This is because, rather than
design decisions being based
around complicated manufacturing
processes or the limitations of tooling,
AM parts can be designed optimally
for their end use and result in a more
ef cient aftermarket at the same time.
For example, BOOM Supersonic
uses a variety of Stratasys FDM
equipment, including an F900 3D
Printer with the Stratasys Aircraft
Interiors Solution, for the design and
production of its XB-1 test vehicle.
The XB-1 is intended to lead the way
to Overture, the world’s rst new
commercial supersonic aircraft since
Concorde. BOOM is utilising AM to
produce dozens of prototypes, tools,
simulator components, and parts for
the XB-1, signi cantly accelerating
the development process.
The exibility of AM’s highperformance,
low-volume
manufacturing also allows the
creation of complex shapes without
the geometric restrictions of tooling
and moulds, opening up in-cabin
applications that can
really differentiate
customer experiences.
As lower-volume
production becomes
more economically
viable, manufacturers can create
customised parts that are intended for
speci c classes within aircraft.
For instance, customers can
print their branding and logos on
aircraft components or integrate
unique decorative features, giving
each airline or aircraft personality.
Where previously we’ve seen this
done in some VIP private vehicles,
this can now be cost effectively
applied to commercial aircraft. This
personalisation can even bene t
pilots: China Eastern Airlines printed
a common mount for their electronic
ight bags so pilots can mount their
tablet the same way regardless of
aircraft.
Some of these applications are
quite complex. Diehl Aviation recently
utilised FDM technology to produce
a curtain header – an enclosure that
sits above the curtain rail separating
classes onboard. Traditionally the
enclosure was constructed using
several layers of laminated breglass
and required specialised aluminium
tooling, which was time-consuming
and costly. Diehl was able to
assemble this part from 12 3D-printed
thermoplastic components, drastically
reducing the tooling costs and saving
hours of workforce time. This
piece is actually the largest
fully 3D-printed passenger
aircraft part ever produced
and is being line- t into
A350s. !
Above: Some of the
aerospace parts
produced by additive
manufacturing
Below:Scott Sevcik
18 WWW.EUREKAMAGAZINE.CO.UK | MARCH 2020
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