News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
NASA recently expressed interest in working with the UK’s Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC). The organizations have announced they will form a collaboration to enable NASA to explore the use of MTC’s additive manufacturing technology for future space exploration missions. The MTC has been home to the European Space Agency’s (ESA) additive manufacturing benchmarking center since its launch in 2017.
Though there is still an important focus on Mars for its potential to host a human colony someday in the future, NASA is already thinking beyond the red planet and looking further out in the solar system to Saturn and Jupiter, whose moons may be the most likely places in the galaxy to show signs of life.
GE Additive has announced yet another step forward for GE Aviation’s GEnx-2B aircraft engine for the Boeing 747-8. A 3D printed bracket has been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the engine, replacing a traditionally manufactured power door opening system (PDOS) bracket.
Titomic Limited, an Australia-based metal AM company, has signed a $2.6 million deal with the Innovative Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (IMCRC), CSIRO and RMIT University to launch the Additively Manufactured Titanium Complex Structures Project. The project is aimed at establishing standards for the company’s Titomic Kinetic Fusion (TKF) technology.
Lufthansa Technik, a supplier of maintenance, repair and overhaul services (MRO) for aircraft and engines, has opened an Additive Manufacturing Center. The new center will enable the company to expand and accelerate its use of 3D printing for its services and leverage the benefits the technology offers.
It’s been a bit of a wild ride for Russian company 3D Bioprinting Solutions this past week, but things seems to be on the upswing now. Late last week, Sputnik News reported that the first 3D bioprinter bound for space was destroyed after the Soyuz spacecraft it was cargo on crashed during a liftoff malfunction. In the aftermath of the disappointing crash, 3D Bioprinting Solutions says it is now preparing to send a duplicate machine to the ISS.
Rolls-Royce is best known as a luxury car maker based in the UK. What some may not fully realize, is the the British multinational also plays a significant role in the aerospace industry, designing and manufacturing power systems for aircraft. As part of its effort to ring in new innovations in civil aerospace, the company has increasingly turned to additive manufacturing.
GE is preparing to begin the mass production of 3D printed parts for the GEnx jet engine that powers Boeing 747s. The 3D printed GEnx part, a rib-sized bracket that holds the engine cover open during servicing, will mark the first program certified by GE for its Concept Laser metal AM system. GE Aviation will begin producing the parts this month at its factory in Auburn, Alabama.
Boeing and Thermwood are collaborating on employing additive manufacturing technology to produce a large, single-piece tool for the 777X program. The project is based on a new process going by the acronym VLP (vertical layer printing) and is demonstrating that additive manufacturing is able to generate production-quality tooling for the aerospace industry.
Is 3D printing truly going to become a technology for mass production? And if so, when? What and how many final parts have been 3D printed? GE is helping us shed some light on this topic. After the company’s additive and medical divisions reported that 100,000 hip cups have been 3D printed to date, now GE Aviation is reporting that 30,000 fuel nozzles have been 3D printed for its LEAP engines.