Page 18 - 3D Metal Printing Spring 2016

3D Aerospace Metal 3D Printing
3D-printed metal parts within this novel heat exchanger, for aerospace and other applications, help to maximize cooling
capacity while minimizing weight and volume. The printed parts increase surface area due to their intricate geometrical
internal passages. (Photo: Richard Martukanitz, Penn State Center for Innovative Materials Processing through Direct
Digital Deposition, funded by Dave Shifler, ONR).
2000R from Concept Laser GmbH (U.S. oper- ations are based in Grapevine, TX), offers a build volume to 31.5 by 16 by 20 in.
Anything larger requires some form of direct metal deposition (DMD), a com- pletely different type of additive-manu- facturing technology that is not confined to a powder bed. In DMD machines, such as those built by German manufacturer Trumpf, a numerically controlled five-axis articulated laser head continuously traces out a melt pool on a metal base, following a programmed pattern. The printer then sprays metal powder into the melt pool where it cools and fuses with the layers underneath to build up a solid part.
Another type of DMD technology is the electron-beam additive manufacturing (EBAM) system developed by Sciaky (Chicago, IL) to build very large parts. Sci- aky uses an electronic beam rather than a laser head to melt a metal filament, which then fuses with previous layers to form a solid piece. Sciaky claims that its machines can make parts as large as 19 ft.
long, 4 ft. wide and 4 ft. tall, with unlimited geometry—perfect for a small aircraft wing or airfoil.
Accelerating Production
Metal 3D printing has become a game changer for many aerospace OEMs, by drastically reducing the time and cost to develop prototypes and tooling.
“We spend an enormous amount of money on tooling, and we can improve our manufacturing flowput by printing tooling used internal to Honeywell,” God- frey says. “Tools that might take six or seven weeks to manufacture can be print- edinadayortwo.Ifwecangettheright tools to the test rigs two or three months
ahead of the original plan, we can save tens of thousands of dollars in schedule and program costs.”
For production parts, metal 3D printing can speed things up even faster by skip- ping the tooling altogether and instead using 3D simulations and printed proto- types to power through the development cycle.
“We completed almost nine different build orientations and designs before we found one that we locked down—in four months,” says NAVAIR’s McMichael. “If you think about typical production tool- ing, you wouldn’t be able to do that.”
The first time the team went through the development process from concept to demo took more than one year, McMichael adds. “But because of what we’ve learned, we think can go faster for some of the other parts we’re choosing, particularly for parts made of the same material and using a similar process.”
Revolutionary Designs
One of the first valid uses for metal printing at NAVAIR was building replace- ment parts no longer available for older aircraft. Only after this issue has been addressed successfully will McMichael’s team pivot to the next priority: using AM to improve Navy and Marine Corps aircraft by making parts lighter, adding new capa- bilities, or combining multiple parts into single assemblies to improve cost and reli- ability, McMichael says.
The high cost of aerospace materials
Honeywell employs Arcam electron-beam melting machines and a laser-melting system from Concept Laser in its Additive Manufacturing Technology Center in Phoenix, AZ.
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