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Additive manufacturing makes headway in aircraft production

Written by PETER SANDER (VP of Emerging Technologies & Concepts Germany at Airbus Operations GmbH, Hamburg, Germany) at industrial-lasers.com - Additive manufacturing makes headway in aircraft production - 09/17/2017

The introduction:

Reduced ecological and environmental footprint opportunities are big
PETER SANDER

Airbus' investigations into additive manufacturing processes started more than 20 years ago, first with plastics and rapid prototyping applications and a few years later on laser beam melting (LBM) and electron beam melting (EBM) for metal applications. A problem that still somewhat exists for the company is coming to additive manufacturing solutions with a solid business case, and how to start if nearly every industrial decision is driven by business-case discussions.

Ninety-five percent of the time, additive manufacturing makes it easier, cheaper, and faster to jump into a project, rather than trying to get permanently improving basic figures through deep investigations for future decisions.

Fast-track product developments

One example of additive manufacturing capabilities is the machines themselves. In 2012, the company started with one 250W (250 × 250 × 280mm) LBM machine, and now has two to four 400W/1kW lasers (up 800 × 400 × 500mm) in service—a trend that will continue to be boosted by completely new types of multilaser systems in the next 10 years.

Business cases will also be feasible for low-cost products mid-term (2020 onwards) for the company. The key lesson learned after seven years, with more than 250 metal additive manufacturing projects so far, is that additive manufacturing will enable highly integrated and multifunctional products, with big opportunities in the future in terms of ecological and environmental footprint.

Materials, processes, and machines

Materials. Because of future business cases, Airbus first focused on titanium (Ti6-4), followed by Inox, and is planning on aluminum applications by the end of 2018. LBM/EBM-based additive manufacturing on Ti6-4 has been on Technology-Readyness-Level (TRL) 6 since the end of 2015, and the first low-rate serial parts were delivered by Premium Aerotech (a subsidiary of Airbus) at the end of 2015.

One additional opportunity will be available for serial applications in 2018 onwards with Scalmalloy, a high-performance aluminum alloy managed by the Airbus subsidiary AP-Works. From 2018 onwards, the company will have a first set of additive manufacturing materials available to start real serial production. One of the biggest challenges for future additive manufacturing serial applications is the availability of low-cost metal powders, so it is good to see all activities all over the world following that future need.