Aviation Germany: Fast High-Quality Components

The Trade Forum ‘Aviation’ is discussing trends and new developments at Rapid.Tech, the international trade show and conference for additive manufacturing, which takes place from 14 to 16 June 2016 in Erfurt.

Whilst other branches still predominantly use additive manufacturing (AM) processes and 3D printing in prototyping, the aerospace industry has been using them for years in the manufacture of series parts. AM also plays an important role in spare parts supply. “3D Printing is already an established manufacturing technology in various sectors of aviation. Now it is a question of broadening the potential applications on the one hand and driving forward the industrialisation of AM processes on the other,” explains Dr. Eric Klemp, Managing Director, voestalpine Additive Manufacturing Center and program coordinator of the Trade Forum ‘Aviation’ (16 June 2016) at the 13th Rapid.Tech in Erfurt.

What’s in store?

A completely new approach to industrialisation of Additive Manufacturing is being presented by Daan A.J. Kersten, Managing Director, Dutch Company Additive Industries, in the form of MetalFAB1. The innovative, modular design of this system enables metal components to be manufactured in an integrated process chain – from the file all the way to the finished product—for the first time. Compared with traditional ‘mid-range’ AM machines used in industry, it provides an increase in productivity of up to tenfold, and with greater reproducibility and flexibility. One of the features that make this possible is the system’s high level of automation, which removes the need for manual labour. Matteo Levoni of CRP Technology SRL in Italy will reference various projects as he discusses the use of a carbon fibre-reinforced composite for AM-manufactured components for satellites such as KySAT-2 and 1U CubeSat. Rainer Sabisch of App Tital GmbH will consider in his talk how a combination of investment casting and AM can be used to design components with optimised topology. Christian Seidel from the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology (IWU) will describe the road from design guidelines to rules that can be applied by design engineers. The use of hybrid manufacturing to re-use as much material as possible in the repair of defective aerospace components is the subject of the session led by Christopher Stengel, SLM Solutions GmbH. A methodology for making decisions about when to use additive processes in the manufacture and repair of aviation components will be explained by Gereon Deppe of the Direct Manufacturing Research Center (DMRC) at the University of Paderborn. He will also assess the costs of Additive Manufacturing processes, enabling a comparison with manufacturing and repair costs for conventional technologies. Finally, his session will look at quality criteria and the identification and evaluation of changes in the supply chain.

Numerous Forums

For the first time this year’s Rapid.Tech, international trade show and conference for Additive Manufacturing, will include the trade forums on ‘3D Metal Printing’, ‘Additive Contract Manufacturing’, ‘Electronic Engineering’ and ‘Automotive Industry’. In addition to the well-established trade forums on ‘Medical Technology’, ‘Dental Technology’, ‘Design’, ‘Tools’, ‘Science’ and the User’s Conference, the new conference areas will provide opportunities for intensive professional discussion on specific AM topics. All Rapid.Tech conference presentations will be simultaneously translated (German and English). “With the expanded conference programme and the extended, three-day duration of Rapid.Tech, we are keeping abreast of developments in Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing,” explains Wieland Kniffka, CEO, Messe Erfurt.

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