Applications
Printed Metal That Has to Fly
A light lattice is not a flight part until the powder, the recipe, and the inspection travel with it.
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Aerospace teams print metal because it can remove joints, shorten a buy, or put material only where the load goes. None of that matters to a released part until the process is frozen. The machine, the parameter file, the powder lot, the heat treatment, and the inspection plan are the part. Change one without a review and you have a different part that happens to share a shape.
Lattices and the places they hide
A lattice can cut weight. It can also hide unmelted powder, trapped supports, and thin struts that look fine and then crack. If you cannot inspect the region, do not put a clever lattice there to win a screenshot. Solid sections with a known scan plan are less glamorous and easier to release. Coupons should see a similar thermal history to the thickest real section, or they are a souvenir.
This is not a guide to certifying hardware. It is a map of why the quote looks large. You are buying discipline. A shop that talks only about laser speed is selling a build, not a flight part.
- Trace powder from the container to the build and back to storage.
- Record who approved the parameter set and when it changed.
- Machine the datums. As-built faces are rarely the interface.
- Keep the scan and the coupon result next to the serial number.
Do this next
- 1
Start from the requirement: load, temperature, and what failure costs.
- 2
Lock the machine, the parameter revision, and the powder specification together.
- 3
Put witness coupons where the thermal history resembles the real section.
- 4
Choose an inspection that can see the defect you actually fear.
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