Additive Manufacturing in Aerospace Industry: Present and Future

Abstract

Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies have a profound impact on the aviation industry, they are continuously expanding their share in the aerospace supply chain, providing better revenues, turnaround times, and lower CO2 emissions. Despite the huge expansion that has taken place over the last decades, it seems that the aerospace industry has barely scratched the surface of the enormous potential AM has to offer. At the beginning of their use in the aerospace industry, additive technologies were used for nonfunctional parts (e.g. rapid prototyping), rapid tooling (e.g. molds), and non-critical parts such as assembly jigs, testing equipment, fixtures and accessories in the airplanes. Now, AM is used for the fabrication of some of the most critical aircraft components with high structural demand such as jet engine turbine blades and combustion chambers, wings and fuselages of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), etc. As the aviation industry continues to embrace AM, the technologies are used in a variety of ways that were unthinkable just a few years ago, and new uses that could not have been imagined before are appearing almost daily. As the safe operation of aerospace products is of utmost importance, standards and regulations have a critical role in the aerospace industry. AM technologies, while still in its infancy, made such a fast and extensive impact on the aerospace industry that the aviation authorities were not been able to provide adequate standards infrastructure and recommended practices for the design, build, and safe operation of AM parts in such a short period. This is one of the biggest challenges for wider use of the AM, and a large amount of research and effort is invested so that standardization of AM for aerospace progresses at the right pace. This keynote, will present the current status of AM technologies in the aerospace industry, give an overview of different AM technologies in use and point out their advantages and disadvantages. Additionally, it will discuss problems with the developments of standards and recommendations for this application.