The United States Air Force has granted GE AVIATION a rating of airworthiness for its F110 metal sump coverage created using additive manufacturing. This Hito achievement takes place as part of the company Patfinder Pacer Edge program, an initiative aimed at highlighting the use of industrial 3D printing in the aerospace industry.
The manufacture of additives, which is a term of the industry for what consumers popularly know to 3D printing, is a promising technology that can change the way in which certain things are built. We have seen this technology used for things like ‘impression’ housing structures and NASA has previously explored technology as a possible way to create necessary components on request in future space missions.
The perseverance of NASA’s rover, which landed on Mars in February, is an example of how additive manufacturing can be used for the spacecraft and other vehicles: it contains 11 metal components that were all 3D printed. The clear advantage offered by the additive manufacturing is that almost anything you can imagine and design as a 3D model can be created using a machine that accurately forms the object one layer at a time.
This eliminates the need to create molds, trimmed materials and other aspects of traditional manufacturing, offering unique design opportunities and potential uses that seem completely codi-fi in nature, as print components for Metah structures, for example. GE Additive specializes in printing metallic components through electric bed melting machines.
The technology works by applying layers of metallic powder that melt and merge with an electron or laser beam. As with 3D printers based on consumption level plastic, each layer is printed and joined to the above layer until the final component fully manufactured.
GE AVIATION used this technology to create the metal sump motor component, which USA has given airworthiness rating. With approval, GE says that Phase 1a of the Pacer Edge initiative is completed, paving the way for future phases that will carry the manufacture of metal additives at the base of the Tinker Air Force. This supply chain will allow military customers to acquire aerodynamic metal components created with 3D printing technology.
