ADDITIVE

MANUFACTURING
IN AEROSPACE
Why Aerospace companies use
additive manufacturing?
Additive manufacturing builds direct from CAD data and can
eliminate the need for tooling,jigs and assembly fixtures.
When compared to complex CNC machining and long lead time
investment casting , 3D printing can rapidly deliver and significantly
simplify intricate parts through part consolidation, allowing multiple
sub-assemblies to be combined into a single component.
It offers one of the most instrumental solution for weight reduction
and simplifies inventory management.
 TECHNOLOGIES AND MATERIALS
S.No. Application Example part Requirements Process Material
1. Engine Nozzle Heat resistant SLS Glass-filled
compartment functional parts nylon
2. Cabin Console control Customized functional
SLA Standard Resin
accessories part knobs
3. Flexible ducts and
Air ducts Air flow ducting SLS Nylon 12
bellow directors
4. Seat backs & entry Large parts with
Full size panels SLA Standard Resin
doors smooth surface finish
5. Metal parts casted
Casted metal Brackets and door SLA & Material Castable Resin
using 3D printed
parts handles Jetting or Wax
patterns
6. Suspension Consolidated,
Metal Titanium or
wishbone & GE Jet lightweight, functional DMLS/SLM
components Aluminum
Engine metal parts
7. Dashboard End use custom
Bezels Material Jetting Digital ABS
interface screen bezels
8. Headlight Fully transparent, Material Jetting Transparent
Lights
prototypes high-detail models & SLA Resin
APPLICATIONS
Air ducts, wall
panels, seat
frameworks and
even engine
components have
all benefited from
reduced weight
enabled by 3D
printing.
3D Printing for
commercial
aircrafts
 Airbus, now has a record number of
3D printed parts on their new A350
XWB aircraft, with 1,000+ parts.
 Stratasys helped them
produce these parts quickly
and efficiently using high-
performance FDM materials like
ULTEM 9085.
 This production-grade thermoplastic
is a strong and FST (flame smoke
and toxicity) compliant material
with excellent strength-to-weight
ratio, certified to Airbus’s
specifications.
3D Printing for
Industrial Spacecrafts
 NASA is using a Stratasys 3D
printer to develop and test a
space rover.
 The rover is about the size of a
Hummer with a pressurized
cabin to support life on Mars
and currently contains over 70
FDM 3D printed parts.
 The 3D printed parts on NASA’s
rover include flame-retardant
vents and housings, camera
mounts, pod doors, a large part
that functions as a front bumper
and many other customized
fixtures.
Materials Used for
Flight-Ready Parts
 Ultem 9085 had also been
an invaluable choice for use
on satellites.
 According to NASA,
their Jet Propulsion
Laboratory found 3D
printing to be a much
cheaper and quicker
alternative to machining
custom antenna arrays out
of astroquartz, which is a
time consuming and very
expensive process usually
reserved only for larger
satellites.
Production of
Satellite Parts
 A Satellite frame printed in
Titanium using 3D Printing.
 From technical advantages
to targeted cost reductions,
many milestones were
achieved: savings purely in
production were more than
20%.
 Additionally, the engineers
successfully decreased part
mass: the weight advantage
is over 300 g, which means
nearly one-kilogram
reduction per satellite.
Evolving
applications
 The Soleon Agro drone
distributes pest control
across fields in three
different directions.
 Intended for biological pest
control in agriculture, it was
developed using 3D
printing for rapid
prototyping, testing, and
design verification to
reduce the cost of product
development.
3D printed
fuel tank
 Machining the larger tank at
6.75’x3.8’x3.8’ and the second tank
at 3.8’x3.8’x3.8’ would take over 6
months and around $250,000.
 The recent advancements in large-
scale 3D printing applied Stratasys’
Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM)
to the tank simulators.
 Stratasys Direct Manufacturing
delivered high quality parts on time
and offered the engineering
thermoplastic and finishing
processes required for the form, fit
and function tests.
THANK YOU