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Lufthansa Has Announced the First Load-Bearing Part Made With Metal Additive Manufacturing
Thanks to additive manufacturing, quite a few major successes and improvements have already been celebrated in the aerospace sector. Now, German airline Lufthansa has announced that, in a joint collaboration with Premium AEROTEC, additive manufacturing will be used for more&helli
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Thanks to additive manufacturing, quite a few major successes and improvements have already been celebrated in the aerospace sector. Now, German airline Lufthansa has announced that, in a joint collaboration with Premium AEROTEC, additive manufacturing will be used for more cost-effective production of spare parts for their aircraft . Specifically, the metal component produced at Lufthansa Technik’s Additive Manufacturing Center will be used for the IAE-V2500 engine’s anti-icing system. For this, the two companies have already received official aviation approval from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) for the additively manufactured A-Links. This is the first instance where approval has been given within the aerospace industry for a load-bearing, metallic, 3D printed spare part.
With the support of Premium AEROTEC, Lufthansa is positioning itself very well, because as a global player within the aviation industry, Premium AEROTEC specializes in the development and production of aircraft parts made of metal and carbon fiber composites. Lufthansa Technik needs a total of nine of these so-called A-links to fix a ring-shaped hot air duct in the engine’s inlet cowl. This prevents the formation of ice on the aircraft engine, which is also urgently required due to the enormous altitude of an aircraft. Though they are extremely important, they often wear down at their mounting holes, meaning they need to be replaced every few years.
The 3D-printed A-Link (photo credits: Premium AEROTEC)
Low Wear and Cost Reduction: Lufthansa Enjoys the Advantages of Metal Additive Manufacturing
The main reason why 3D printing was chosen for the production of the A-Links is primarily related to wear and tear. The traditionally manufactured A-Links can no longer be used under all given safety aspects after only a few years due to the vibrations during a flight and have to be replaced. Though usually such aircraft parts are made with a forging process, the German airline will now be able to produce them by Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) thanks to collaboration with Premium AEROTEC. Compared to the forging process, this has the advantage that no jigs or molds are required for subsequent production, resulting in valuable material savings and thus cost reductions.
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