3D Printing Applications in Aerospace and Automotive

In December 2022, GE announced a turbine centre frame made with laser 3D printing. Just one year later, Zhang’s team presented a component larger and more complex than GE’s, the intermediate casing. Over a metre in diameter, it features bionic grooves just 15 to 35 micrometers deep – thinner than a human hair. It was previously considered impossible to manufacture such a large hard alloy component using a 3D printer while maintaining precision at such a fine scale. The intermediate casing is the most important and complex load-bearing structural component of an aviation engine. It not only connects the engine’s front intake fan and the compressor but also serves as the connection between the engine and the aircraft fuselage. The intermediate casing needs to withstand the impact of high-pressure and high-temperature gases while transmitting the engine’s thrust and torque to the aircraft. Despite being just 3mm (0.11 inch) at its thinnest point, it can bear over 10 tonnes of load, posing significant design and manufacturing challenges. Using mainstream 3D printing technology and commercial software, Zhang’s team created a prototype that is 25 per cent lighter than traditional castings, yet strong enough to withstand impacts like bird strikes.

Lin Kayser: The #aerospike we showed with AMCM GmbH last year was a tough act to follow. But when Josefine Lissner started evaluating the multimaterial metal #3dprinting process that the Fraunhofer IGCV developed, we knew we had to create a new one. Using different metals in the same design is an interesting proposition for space components. It’s a very new process, so the #ComputationalEngineering iterations had to go hand in hand with countless test prints to enable success. Super proud of the end result and apparently it was the highlight of many Formnext - Where ideas take shape visitors. I took the liberty of combining photos and videos of all your posts in this video. We will be publishing a case study on the LEAP 71 website soon. While this is mainly a showcase for the multimaterial print process, this aerospike rocket engine is fundamentally functional, has a fully designed internal structure with four combustion chambers, coaxial swirl injectors, routing for oxygen and methane propellants based on mass flow and a nitrogen purge layer for safety. It’s based on our computational model for space propulsion systems, RP/CEM. Credits for images/videos to (I hope I didn’t forget anyone): Timo Schröder, Heidi Piili (née Malmberg) John Robinson Erik Haapa Svetlana Boshnakova Alexander Nicolai GPAINNOVA | DLyte Fraunhofer IGCV

Happy to share the most recent publication from the Sikder Lab - "In-house processing of carbon fiber-reinforced polyetheretherketone (CFR-PEEK) 3D printable filaments and fused filament fabrication-3D printing of CFR-PEEK parts" published in The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing. This is a comprehensive study where we engineer 3D-Printable Carbon Fiber Reinforced PEEK filaments in-house and utilize them in a high-temperature Fused Filament Fabrication system to 3D print a vital automotive part. This study was spearheaded by my Master's student Harsha Phanindra Sai. This was practically his entire Master's thesis and he achieved a journal publication out of it! As soon as he graduated, he had a job offer waiting for him. No doubt, his rigorous hands-on experience with Additive Manufacturing at the Sikder Lab helped him. Congrats Harsha Phanindra Sai ! Pls find the paper here for an informative read - https://rdcu.be/dlqF0 #3dprinting #additivemanufacturing #manufacturing #polymers #peek #carbonfiber #reinforced #studentsuccess #mastersdegree #engagedlearning #research #researchpublication #researchpaper