Over the years, aerospace has been proven to be one of the fastest-growing applications for 3D printing worldwide. Multiple varieties, small batches, and complex structures are the unique product characteristics of aerospace. The urgent needs for lightweight, low-cost, and rapid development are highly compatible with the characteristics of 3D printing, such as a high degree of freedom and fast molding. Some aircraft manufacturers may even take advantage of the brief downtime to retrofit their aircraft, build digital inventories to maintain aging aircraft, and use advanced manufacturing techniques to create the next generation of aircraft. For example, my country's domestically produced C919 large aircraft is designed and trial-produced through the application of a large number of 3D printing technologies.
Let's take a deeper look at why the aviation industry uses 3D printing and see how these common advantages can be used in the production of aircraft:
Parts integration
The weakest point in a part assembly is where it is assembled. In the case of aircraft, such a weakness could become a critical point of failure, endangering human life.
By incorporating multiple components of a part into a single 3D-printed build, the number of assembly points is necessarily reduced. The unique geometries made possible by 3D printing can reduce what would normally have dozens or hundreds of parts to just a few — or a single part. With no welding, riveting, or other fasteners required to hold parts together, not only is assembly reduced but also reduces potential points of failure.
The more components that are consolidated, the greater the savings. If some parts are fixed after assembly, this may be an opportunity to integrate the design. Complexity is often free in additive manufacturing, and the most successful parts exploit this axiom as much as possible. The benefits of parts integration mainly include the following:
Reduced assembly: This includes reducing labor, inventory, jigs/tools, and manufacturing footprint dedicated to the final product. Assembly inspections are also reduced, greatly reducing the chance of assembly errors.
Fewer points of failure: Long-term maintenance costs are reduced and inventory of replacement parts can be reduced. Small batch replacements can be made quickly and cost-effectively if required.
Reduced operating costs: Thanks to additive manufacturing, part optimization through design freedom improves product performance, enabling enhancements such as part weight reduction and better thermal performance.
Lightweight
For equipment used in flight, "grams are gold", and every kilogram of weight loss can save hundreds of thousands of yuan in costs. Lighter components mean less fuel, which not only reduces the carbon footprint of flying but also reduces the cost of flying.
3D printing continues to innovate on the basis of traditional manufacturing materials. In the same structural parts, 3D printing material formulations with better performance are used to create lighter final parts. Combined with lightweight structures such as component integration, 3D printing topology optimization, and lattice structures, it is especially beneficial to the lightweight design of aircraft, making it more functionally dense.
Enhanced Design Freedom
Many people working in additive manufacturing like to claim that the technology offers great "design freedom" because for the first time, complex geometries that cannot be produced by other manufacturing processes can be achieved.
In the past, components with very complex designs were difficult or very expensive to manufacture, or could not be manufactured at all. Using additive manufacturing processes, highly complex two- or three-dimensional metal parts can be produced in a relatively simple manner, and this is a viable way to integrally form structural components consisting of solid and mesh parts.
Design methods such as topology optimization and generative design have effectively assisted 3D printing to develop new shapes that have never been thought of before. These complex lattice designs not only save weight by incorporating material only where necessary but are also often stronger than traditional designs. While certain limitations still exist and may vary depending on the 3D printing technique and materials used, these limitations are in many ways far less severe than those seen in traditional subtractive manufacturing processes. New interior and exterior aircraft parts can be designed to replace aging original parts, and more flexible design tricks to add extreme functionality.
Rapid Prototyping Iteration
The name of the original use of 3D printing is rapid prototyping. From sketch ideas to CAD designs to first prototypes—then second, third, and so on—3D printing accelerates time-to-market for new products. It takes about half a year from design to manufacture to manufacture turbine blades with traditional technology, but it takes about half a year to make a mold. However, using 3D printing technology can achieve fast turnaround and iteration within days or weeks.
Small batch production
In the aerospace industry, relatively few aircraft are produced in terms of total production compared to automobile or electrical appliance manufacturing.
High-value, low-volume production is well suited for 3D printing. While many traditional manufacturing processes require expensive tooling and molds to be made, creating economies of scale for mass production, additive manufacturing eliminates the need for molds. One or several pieces can be made at a time—including different designs on the same build plate—without additional molding or tooling costs.
The inflection point between additive manufacturing and traditional manufacturing typically requires the manufacture of hundreds or thousands of parts until traditional technologies become more cost-effective, and while this may ultimately reduce the cost of each injection molded part to pennies, it is not until that intersection point, 3D printing will be more cost-effective. Especially when using high-value application materials, saving material is imperative.
Digital inventory
When an aircraft nears the end of its useful life, it can often be salvaged by replacing certain parts to keep it flying. The conventional way this is done is through the use of physical warehouses where spare parts are stocked on shelves when needed. In most cases, these spare parts are manufactured at the same time as the original series-produced OEM parts and are reserved for replacement needs of worn parts. But if that need never arises, they're wasting not only the time and cost of producing them, but years of them sitting on shelves. Worse, if the demand comes, spare parts are out of stock, especially those that are out of production forever - missing even a small part could ground the plane.
Instead of physically placing items on shelves, the digital inventory approach stores design files that can be 3D printed. Those parts that need to be replaced can be manufactured anywhere and at any time using appropriate 3D printing techniques, again without the need for expensive molds or tooling to be produced beforehand. Rather than waiting for OEMs to delay, thereby reducing the pressure on physical inventory, while also extending the flight life, so that it will not be unable to fly because of a small part.
Fly higher and further with 3D printing
The production of aircraft, from prototypes to spare parts, is increasingly benefiting from the use of 3D printing in the supply chain. Decentralized production, new design possibilities, and reductions in time, materials, and costs are providing new ways for aircraft to keep flying high.
The value-added manufacturing process replaces traditional manufacturing, which can save mold costs and achieve cost reduction and efficiency increase in many aspects. 3D printing materials are the material basis for the development of 3D printing technology, and metals, ceramics, and composite materials are emerging tracks in the field of 3D printing. According to industry statistics released by Wohlers Associates Inc, in the downstream application industries of 3D printing, the automotive industry, consumer electronics, and aerospace account for the largest proportion, and metals, ceramics, and composite materials will become the "tipping point" of 3D printing materials.
Under the background of the "Made in China 2025" plan, 3D printing has become the main line of my country's promotion of intelligent manufacturing, and aerospace is one of the important application fields of additive manufacturing. At present, in the field of aerospace at home and abroad, high Mach number and high maneuverability aircraft emerge in endlessly and become one of the main development trends of the next generation of aerospace vehicles. Its design requirements put forward higher requirements for design and manufacturing processes. Most of the components have the characteristics of large size, complex shape, and multiple structures. 3D printing technology has great advantages in the integrated manufacturing of large-size parts, the manufacture of special-shaped and complex structural parts, and the manufacture of mass-customized structural parts.
JR can provide you with design, 3D printing process, post-processing, CNC processing, and other one-stop services. At present, it has cooperated with many scientific research institutions, universities, and enterprises in the aerospace application field, and is committed to providing an overall solution for metal indirect 3D printing with high-performance, lightweight, and fine microstructure.