Tornado flies with parts made on 3D Printer

[ORAC]

Successful test flight for Tornado jet containing BAE parts made on 3D printer
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/10552462/Successful-test-flight-for-Tornado-jet-containing-BAE-parts-made-on-3D-printer.html)

Not structural, but it will come. (http://www.southampton.ac.uk/~decode/index_files/Page804.htm)Next big step is whole fuselages and wings assembled by nanobots in vats in one piece.

[CoffmanStarter]

See here ...

The Chinese have already "printed" a 5 meter long Central Wing Spar in titanium with this technology. Apparently the mechanical properties meet the standard of forging parts :eek:

Scroll down to find the article ... there is another article on "printed" parts for Fighter Aircraft.

France Metallurgie (http://www.france-metallurgie.com/index.php/search/Titanium)

http://www.france-metallurgie.com/wp-content/03.jpg

Beijing ... AVIC Laser, a subsidiary of AVIC Heavy Machinery, have produced the world’s largest titanium aircraft critical component produced using 3D Laser Direct Manufacturing technology. Seen below a large 3D printed titanium part for J-20 or J-31 stealth fighter.

http://www.france-metallurgie.com/wp-content/3D-Titanium-Part-printed-china.jpg

[Wensleydale]

The problem will be that should the RAF use this technology then the functionality will be part of DII! We couldn't afford to use it.

[Courtney Mil]

A radio part, fair enough. But parts of the landing gear? I bet that was the softest landing ever!

[dallas]

Why do I get the feeling the RAF/MoD will only buy one 'printer cartridge'...

[Pontius Navigator]

The one that came with the printer.

Forms store had a heart attack when I ordered spare laser cartridges for my colour printer - £250 each for a set of four.

[dallas]

SPARE? Good God man, don't you know there's a war on. You're supposed to wait until 3am on a Bank holiday Monday to run out and/or discover someone has already loaded the last cartridge and not told you.

[dragartist]

Was our e-Go the first a/c in the UK to use 3D printed metal parts? May 2013.


e-Go aeroplanes - Welcome (http://www.e-goaeroplanes.com/)


Had the space man there last week.

[Pontius Navigator]

SPARE? Good God man, don't you know there's a war on. You're supposed to wait until 3am on a Bank holiday Monday to run out and/or discover someone has already loaded the last cartridge and not told you.

Been there, done that:

End of Christmas holidays, dau 2 back to Uni. Panic phone call that night, printer out of ink and dissertation deadline 10 am Monday. Only had 4 weeks at home to print it!

[NutLoose]

I could see an a RAF produced item, starting off grey then running through cyan, magenta and yellow as they run out of ink in each cartridge. The aircraft would end up looking like Joseph and his technicolor dream coat.

[Union Jack]

Very impressive, but wearing what brevet?:E

Jack

[unmanned_droid]

I'm working with someone who has been helping to develop analysis methods for laser sintered parts. The static properties and F&DT properties are comparable to billet machined parts.

I think there's a way to go before using these processes in design as part of aircraft major structure, and they won't revolutionise everything because you'll still need to machine all those 3D printed parts which is still expensive and time consuming.

[iranu]

I was working on Shaped Metal Deposition (SMD) using Ti 6/4 over 10 years ago. This isn't quite the same as 3D printing of metal parts using l@ser sintering of powders, but gives similar results and is now considered part of the whole 3D printing genre.

Essentially SMD is a robot/computerised welding technique using TIG to build up layers into a near net shape, which then requires very little machining to produce a finished part. The material produced had excellent tensile, fatigue and crack propagation properties far in excess of the castings that this technique was initially looking to replace and akin to forgings.

The technology needed quite a bit of refinement though.

Here's a paper that shows you the material produced.

http://iopscience.iop.org/1757-899X/26/1/012001/pdf/1757-899X_26_1_012001.pdf

Info from some sources:

Europe aims for an end to tooling (http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/europe-aims-for-an-end-to-tooling-338718/)

3ders.org - UK unveils 1.2m titanium wingspar 3D printed in one piece | 3D Printer News & 3D Printing News (http://www.3ders.org/articles/20131221-uk-unveils-titanium-wingspar-3d-printed-in-one-piece.html)

Rapid Production of Large Aerospace Components - Transport - Research & Innovation - European Commission (http://ec.europa.eu/research/transport/projects/items/rapolac_en.htm)

RAPOLAC - Rapid Production of Large Aerospace Components (http://www.rapolac.eu/RAPOLAC.html)