A manufacturing research pact among Airbus, aerostructure manufacturer Aerosud, and the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), reportedly aims to develop the biggest, fastest 3D printer possible for making titanium aircraft and satellite components.
Airbus' entrance into the agreement is for testing the viability of components made with the process. The project, called Aeroswift, actually began earlier this year when Aerosud and the South African CSIR's National Laser Centre agreed to work together to slash the production costs of aerospace components using laser additive manufacturing (LAM), another name for selective laser sintering (SLS). It focuses on using titanium powders for the production of large, complex components.
Airbus, aerostructure manufacturer Aerosud, and the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, are partnering to develop the biggest, fastest 3D printer possible for making titanium aircraft and satellite components. Shown here, the Airbus A380 demonstrator aircraft arrives at the 2012 Farnborough International Airport. (Source: Airbus)
According to a CSIR press release, at the announcement of this partnership in Johannesburg, Airbus's Dale King said the CSIR and Aerosud are the only organizations doing work on high-speed, large-volume additive laser manufacturing. "That is why we have decided to forge a partnership with them [the CSIR and Aerosud]," King is quoted as saying. "We came to South Africa for this project because we believe the country has the necessary skills and competencies in the field of LAM."
A prototype LAM system will be completed by mid 2013, and is expected to produce large, complex parts at a rate 10 times faster than traditional manufacturing methods, said Beeuwen Gerryts, chief director of South Africa's Department of Science and Technology, in a September 14 press release. The Department has been championing the development of a broad titanium industry in South Africa, from mining the raw mineral, to producing metal powder, all the way to forming components. South Africa is currently the second largest supplier of titanium ore, but does not export semi-finished or finished titanium products.
The consortium expects to conduct two years of testing, evaluation, and process development to determine whether the parts can be used in aircraft. "The signing of this collaboration agreement represents a major step in ensuring that we develop laser additive manufacturing (LAM) technologies with inputs from our industry partners to make sure that these technologies are relevant when they are commercialised," Dr. Ndumiso Cingo, manager of the National Laser Centre, is quoted as saying in the CSIR press release.
Titanium has been used for several years in the manufacturing of aircraft components, primarily via machining. Earlier this year, Dynamet Technology received a milestone qualification approval from Boeing for supplying Ti-6Al-4V alloy products created with powder metals for structural components on commercial aircraft. Dynamet's process produces PM titanium in basic shapes and near-net shape forms by combining cold consolidation of blended elemental titanium, and alloy powders with vacuum sintering.
My company Control Systems Technologies, LLC holds four patents in modular robotic technology. We basically form a multi degree of freedom configuration (synchronous 6 DOF) around an application and thus shape a work space according to a customer's need. Our path planning program is based on an API that is directly tied to SolidWorks thus enabling the user to form a 3D path within minutes (including cladding paths) to be executed on an existing part and/or slicing if the part needs to be built. I think that this technology can be applied readily in 3D printing applications. Please let me know who I may contact in order to see if there is a fit.
bobjengr, the number of AM techniques is actually pretty small. Basically, there's SLA, (S)LS, and FDM. Various forms of "3D printing" ("3DP" is a term invented by MIT), are simply doing AM with an inkjet-type nozzle that sprays material in all three directions (X, Y, Z) for creating layers. PolyJet, for instance, is not a separate method, but an SLA technique using inkjet methods. A caveat: the term "3D printing" is now used, confusingly, to refer to all types of additive manufacturing. You also listed Laminated Object Manufacturing, which (obviously) uses lamination. This is a rapid prototyping method that competes with SLA and SLS, but is not considered an AM technique. One of the best AM resources I've found is here: http://www.wohlersassociates.com
Excellent article Ann. I have followed "additive manufacturing" over the past few years and remain fascinated by the possibilities. Right now it appears the various types are as follows:
· (SLA) Stereolithography
· (SLS) Selective Laser Sintering
· (FDM) Fused Deposition Modeling
· (3DP) Three Dimensional Printing
· (Pjet) Poly-Jet
· Laminated Object Manufacturing
Stereolithography, of course, was the very first. There are two things that really amaze me about the processes: 1.) The size of manufactured product grows each year and 2.) The materials used for the each method expand and grow each year. I would not be surprised at all is the testing planned yield components that "make the grade" as far as specifications. I suspect they could exceed expectations. Again, great post.
Greg, I agree, and I thought Dave's comments were also to the point regarding vertical integration in South Africa all the way from raw materials to exported products. Looks like a very wise business move for the country overall.
I am also impressed with the forward thinking ability of this South African consortium to strategically invest in processes that produce net shape titanium rather than raw titanium, thus capitalizing on much higher profit margins. This vertical business integration will help both their organizations and their country.
Jim, so glad to give you info about something new that sparks your creative thinking. I think the potential of 3D printing technology can be applied in all kinds of ways we haven't thought about yet. I really enjoy doing that here at Design News. I don't expect everyone to agree or find what I write about interesting. But I'm glad that many enjoy the new and different technologies I find. Creativity has sometimes been defined as bringing together disparate elements in a new way.
,,,which opens a whole new paradigm for me. Very thought provoking and encouraging for new innovative methods for everyday things. (Too bad the associated comments under this linked story are so negative and narrow minded - it helps remind me that even break-thru progress has anchors to drag.)
Jim, the architectural apps are for buildings. If you google "3D printed buildings" you'll find several different versions. Unless you want to make airplanes out of sand and cement, there's no relationship in products. But figuring out to make larger build volumes is, to some extent, a generic 3D printing problem, which is why I mentioned the larger build volumes of the architectural apps.
OK, noted; do you know an example of the architectural Apps -? I'm fuzzy on that, and wondering if it's a stretch between architectural and aeronautical ,,, ?
The 100-percent solar-powered Solar Impulse plane flies on a piloted, cross-country flight this summer over the US as a prelude to the longer, round-the-world flight by its successor aircraft planned for 2015.
GE Aviation expects to chop off about 25 percent of the total 3D printing time of metallic production components for its LEAP Turbofan engine, using in-process inspection. That's pretty amazing, considering how slow additive manufacturing (AM) build times usually are.
A $1,500, hand-operated, bench-model, plastic injection machine crowdsource-funded via Kickstarter can be used to mold small, quality, plastic parts inexpensively, on demand.
The federal government is launching competitions to kickstart three more manufacturing innovation institutes, including one focused on Lightweight and Modern Metals Manufacturing Innovation.
The airframe of Airbus's A350 XWB consists of a bigger proportion of carbon-fiber-reinforced composite structures than any other commercial jet to date: over 53 percent by weight.
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