volume production. The assembly of composite designs with various sizes and the scope that prevails manufacturing in the required volume are achieved in a single machine through AM.
Figure 1.9. Aerospace components fabricated through AM (Hiemenz 2014)
1.6. Challenges faced in the aerospace industry
One of the biggest challenges faced in the aerospace industry is the inability to manufacture large and odd-sized components. Another main challenge faced in the field of aerospace is that the strength in the plane of layers is not uniform. The scalability of traditional manufacturing methods is limited, which find difficulty in stocking inventories. Printing multiple materials cannot be achieved simultaneously with AM, thus making it somewhat unsatisfactory. This is a problem that needs to be solved with advances in material science, by expanding the selection of materials and reducing their cost.
1.7. Overcoming aerospace challenges with AM
AM in aerospace gives a good inspection of the parts in a completely automated process. In the manufactured parts in aerospace, an accuracy of about 30–40 microns is offered by AM. Good quality parts along with good tolerance levels of less than 10 microns can be achieved with AM. The flexibility of AM allows the designers to manufacture various parts using different materials, thus increasing its competitiveness. Production and unloading can occur simultaneously with AM technology incorporated in the aerospace industry to overcome the scalability criteria.
1.8. Future work
This chapter explained in detail an appraisal of the methodologies and suitable materials used in AM for advancing the aerospace industry with the performances of topological and material optimization, design integration and part consolidation that promotes profitable quantity and quality products:
– The progression and characteristics of AM technology were studied, along with the impact of material properties and processing operations such as orientation and part performance relevant to specific user-defined part design, which should be developed to enhance the shape and structure of alloyed elements.
– The different new materials with varying mechanical and metallurgical properties should be examined to find a better strength-to-weight ratio than the existing alloys.
– AM acts as a single-step process to fabricate multifaceted components; hence, simulation and analysis of AM parts should be carried out to avoid and investigate errors in the design of the component and its failure to prevent wastage of materials.
1.9. Conclusion
AM is a versatile technology. Today, it has become the central building block of future hybrid manufacturing. The additive manufactured components are efficiently used in aerospace, automobile and biomedical industries.
– Today, Industry 4.0 is progressing towards smart manufacturing methodologies where AM has emerged as popular and globally disruptive for the engineering industry.
– When compared to other industries, aerospace is the vibrant area that demands higher volume production of lightweight multifaceted components with high strength and long-term durability.
– The aerospace industry has been prospering in additively manufacturing spacecraft components with multi-functioning capability of complex user-defined geometries in minimal weight.
– The main advantage of AM is that it reduces the wastage of materials as well as fabrication time and provides high quality components. The overall weight of an aircraft reduces fuel consumption.
– AM acts as a dynamic and feasible technology with no boundaries for manufacturing modern machineries, especially in aerospace, for developing new components and modifying the existing geometries to generate newly designed aircraft structures.
1.10. References
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