INDUSTRY NEWS AND RESOURCES

As one of the first programs to integrate additive manufacturing from the earliest phases of design and development, ITEP adopted AM before many third party standards or specifications were available. Based on ITEP’s experiences, James explains how future uses of additive manufacturing will benefit as AM standards continue to mature which can aid in technical oversight as well as supplement industry counterparts’ privately developed standards and specifications.

Continued maturation of additive manufacturing technology is also critical, particularly the development of multi-laser machines and in-situ process monitoring, to ensure affordability of AM in a production environment. The T901 will help push the development of additive manufacturing which Eric Gatlin, general manager for GE Aviation’s Additive Integrated Product Team, elaborated on with, “The components that we are working on for T901 are driving us to advance state-of-the-art in AM design, development and manufacturing processes.” The benefits of additive manufacturing increase when it is included into a product’s design from the beginning, such as in the ITEP. Engineers can use AM as they design parts to influence component design, interaction, and how they will be maintained or repaired.

Additive manufacturing can create opportunities to reduce the number of parts needed or to change how a part is built to increase function, reduce weight, or increase strength or flexibility. The flexibilities provided by AM create opportunities for savings in cost, maintenance and supply logistics. Design teams can also leverage AM in unique ways to streamline development and integration of a new technology into an existing platform. For example, the ITEP used a 3D-printed full-scale model of the GE T901 engine to complete mock-up fit checks in an Apache and Black Hawk to assess the form, fit, and human systems integration of the GE T901 as an integration risk reduction effort.

AM also offers reduced cycle times and new supply chain availability for historically difficult to source components. Prior to ITEP, retroactively applying AM manufacturing techniques to enduring systems components was the most common use of this developing technology and is a practice that continues to grow. However, adapting older systems for additive manufacturing may be heavily constrained by existing design features like envelope and interface requirements, funding constraints or program schedules. In enduring aviation systems, a significant change in manufacturing process requires component redesign, validation and flight qualification efforts in order to adapt the technology to older designs which may consume precious time and funding.

Continued engagement and investment in research and development activities with academia, other government agencies, and industry will enable additive manufacturing standards to mature and develop the technology needed for the DOD achieve its AM goals for emerging and enduring systems. Necessary engagement includes greater investment in government-led, hands-on projects on design for AM, material characterization, machine capabilities, and post-processing techniques, which would put government engineers on equal footing with their industry and academic counterparts and better inform oversight of industry’s additive manufacturing processes.

“One of the highlights of my job has been learning all I can about this cutting edge technology and how it will set ITEP apart from military aviation programs that have come before it,” James said. “While the newness of additive certainly brings its share of challenges to solve, there is a growing community of experts in additive manufacturing, including our partners with GE Aviation, the Army’s Aviation ManTech group, experts in academia, and countless others.”

ARTICLE BY RedstoneRocket