Displaying 41-50 of 61 results for

My first experience with additive manufacturing was 10 years ago when I managed a project to develop a 3D-printed, remotely piloted aircraft. Within this program, a 3D-printed parts producer, that mainly printed prototypes at the time, collaborated with a university and an aerospace systems manufacturer.

Precision Shapes Inc. routinely takes on the tough stuff. Thanks to expert help and great cutting tools, the tough stuff just got a lot easier.

Sometimes, improving the quality of machined parts does not involve machining. That’s what A.R. Machining, a family-owned supplier to the aerospace, gas and semi-conductor industries, discovered.

Additive manufacturing, and AM machines, have gone mainstream over the past five years. The technology has advanced. More materials, including metals and composites, are being used for 3D printing, where parts are made from a digital design.

The world of additive manufacturing (AM), commonly referred to as 3D printing, is quickly changing. The technology allows companies to manufacture products faster, with greater variation, and often with entirely new forms and functions.

My involvement in SME and its AeroDef event began in 2014, when I first presented an Adaptive Machining Overview at AeroDef 2014 in Long Beach, Calif. At the time, the conference was relatively small in terms of attendees and exhibitors in comparison to the explosion of other engineering conferences that began around that time.

In the aerospace industry it’s common for OEM contracts and programs with their component suppliers to extend from 10 years to as many as 40 years. Many, if not most, aerospace parts demand efficient and productive metal removal rates—in tough materials, with tight tolerances, and with a reliable, robust, automated process.

Aerospace is an incredibly exacting industry. Everything from design to manufacturing to maintenance must go exactly as planned to keep planes flying safely, and even when they do, mistakes can happen, leading to tragedy.

The search for a suitable replacement for hard chrome in aerospace components has been a key supply chain priority for aircraft manufacturers. This is because of the documented health risks to workers and the impact on the environment from exposure to hexavalent chromium.

Aerospace machining encompasses machines small and large. These range from the Tornos SwissNano to the Makino MAG3, as Rich Sullivan put it. He is the OEM manager for Iscar Metals Inc., Arlington, Texas.