The other night, I saw a video report-one of several, actually-about how some government agency was lit up because it’s beginning to look like 3-D printing will be capable of making parts for firearms. In passing, it mentioned that complex airplane parts would soon be producible by 3-D technology. Yeah, I thought, when pigs fly.
Living in a fast-paced industrial society, you should never think such a thing, much less say it for … sure enough, the airplane parts are happening already. Actually, they’re really aerospace parts for satellites and the preferred description of the technology is additive manufacturing. I’ve been hearing this term more and more; heard it a couple of months ago when I visited Lycoming. They’re not doing engine parts yet, but I suspect fast prototyping and non-structural parts aren’t too far in the future.
A company called Stratasys Direct Manufacturing-formerly RedEye-contacted us a while ago to report that it made a batch of antenna arrays for a NASA satellite called FORMOSAT-7, a weather satellite system. It’s not the first time additive manufacturing parts have been to space, but it is the first time they’ve been used in a structural function outside a spacecraft and it shows that AM is getting ever closer to the point where hard parts really will be printed. Stratasys is using a plastic material called ULTEM 9085 that looks almost metallic and although you might not be able to make engine parts with it, it’s more than up to the rigors of spaceflight exposure.
In this podcast, I spoke to the company’s Jim Bartel and Joel Smith about where this technology is going. And wherever it’s going, it’s getting there a lot more rapidly than many of us realize. The advantage of AM technology is that, depending on the part, it can produce complex shapes much more quickly and accurately directly from digitized design source material than some subtractive technology can. It’s also often a better choice for small volume runs typical of aerospace applications. And it’s getting both better and faster.
AM has been around for quite a while for fast prototyping. Businesses that used to have model shops now either have AM capability themselves or they’re able to transfer their digital files to shops that do, for fast turnarounds.
“With the additive process, we were actually able to built the part in one piece versus having multiple assemblies,” says Joel Smith. “That’s one of the benefits of additive manufacturing.”
Where will it go from here? Bartel says the company is already seeing an expanding set of applications for aerospace parts with manufacturing lead times reduced by weeks, if not months. Furthermore, with AM, there’s no penalty for small volume, as there definitely is when aircraft manufacturers bid parts to vendors who also do automotive volumes.
Will it eventually reach the point where heavy structural parts can be additive manufactured? “That’s definitely where the industry wants this technology to go,” says Smith.
So was that a pig that just whizzed by? Or a drone?
Join the conversation.
Read others’ comments and add your own.
