Fraunhofer and Concept Laser Partner for Large-Scale Additive Manufacturing
Big business is looking into new ways of adapting additive manufacturing (AM) to improve not only the design process, but the production process as well. In the aerospace industry, Airbus and Aerosud are developing large scale AM facilities to produce major components of aircraft (such as entire wings). Now the automotive industry has invested in large-scale AM.
The Fraunhofer Institute of Laser Technology has partnered with Concept Laser to produce a large-scale AM system at the behest of Daimler. This is a story I’ve been following for a while, but details have been sparse. Euromold 2012 provided a few missing puzzle pieces, which I can now share with confidence. Continue reading
Research Advances Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace
Aerospace is the perfect industry for additive manufacturing. Planes are expensive to produce via injection molding and machining methods, and relatively few are made, so traditional manufacturing’s economies of scale don’t apply. Additive manufacturing can affordably produce custom parts on the scale aerospace needs, often without bolts and welds that lead to increased maintenance costs down the line. The key to additive manufacturing, as we’ve mentioned again and again, is materials.
Rapid Ready Roundup: Aerospace AM, 3D Printing in the Cloud and Bobbleheads
In the course of my diligent efforts to keep you good people up to date on the state of additive manufacturing, I come across many interesting news items. I’ll gather them up every so often and present them in a Rapid Ready Roundup (like this one). You can find the last Roundup here.
I recently took a look at how additive manufacturing (AM) and the aerospace industry are interacting, but I’ve since come across more interesting information to pass along. Airbus is talking about using large-scale AM in the aerospace business.
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