Search Results

The digital tools used to create and produce aerospace components are evolving quickly as additive processes expand from prototypes to production.

Norsk Titanium’s proprietary “Rapid Plasma Deposition” (RPD) additive manufacturing (AM) process is distinguished in the aviation industry for producing complex, titanium structural and safety-critical components for many original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). But today, through a partnership with SAE International, Norsk’s RPD process and material requirement specifications are available to a wider, global base of manufacturers.

Orbex, a developer of small satellite (smallsat) launch vehicles based in Forres, Scotland, has unveiled its “Prime” launch vehicle. The rocket utilizes several novel technologies, including the world’s largest metal rocket engine produced as a single piece through additive manufacturing (AM).

With two successful years of 3D printing hardware for both NASA and the U.S. National Laboratory onboard ISS, MIS plans to incorporate capabilities to allow operators aboard ISS to print with stronger, more complex materials such as metals, composites, and carbon nanotube-doped materials.

Weber Metals Inc., a division of Otto Fuchs KG of Germany, unveiled a new, $180 million, 60,000-ton press at its 2.5-acre facility in Paramount, California, southeast of Los Angeles. It sets a record as the highest tonnage hydraulic forging press in the Americas and the largest privately funded forging press investment in the world.

Aerospace manufacturers walk a metaphorical balance beam to continually develop and produce stronger, more efficient materials and components, while addressing all potential failure modes. This is true for safety-critical aircraft components like landing gear systems. Fokker Landing Gear B.V./GKN Aerospace recently equipped its mechanical laboratory with three creep testing machines to verify its manufacturing process control of zinc-plated bolts for aircraft landing gear systems.

To enable the tests required for development work to be performed with maximum efficiency, the Zwick Roell Group (ZwickRoell) – a global supplier of materials testing machines based out of Ulm, Germany – developed a materials testing machine that can be equipped with both a temperature chamber and a high-temperature furnace.

ARCONIC-THOR –designed for higher temperature applications in next generation aero engines and adjacent structures. The ARCONIC-THOR alooy is nearly 50 percent lighter than incumbent nickel-based superalloys.

“Laddering up” of the range of tooling options requires assessing at each plateau whether greater upfront investment in tooling will pay off with a relatively quick return on investment. Since tooling plays such a key role in this equation, it also means working closely with OEMs willing to evaluate the best available tooling options at any time as production requirements increase.

Boeing collaborates with Assembrix to manage and protect intellectual property shared with vendors across its global supply chain for additive manufacturing.

Equispheres will use the investment to conduct the research and development needed to build reactors that will produce powders of higher-strength materials, such as steels, cobalt, chrome, and Inconel.