Aerospace & Defense

Aerospace and Defense is a huge and diverse market with EBM applications found in basically all segments, such as commercial and military aircraft, space applications, missiles and various subsystems like engines and accessories.

A strong common driver throughout the aerospace segment is weight reduction. On the commercial side the main goal is reduction in fuel consumption and on the military side product performance. Regardless of reason this development drives the use of light-weight materials such as titanium alloys and light-weight designs.

A factor very often referred to within the aerospace community is the Buy-to-Fly ratio (how much material you need to purchase in order to manufacture the final flying part). The Buy-to-Fly ratio is as high as 15 or 20 for many flying components due to complex geometries, adding a lot of cost to the component. The EBM process opens up an opportunity to produce light-weight titanium components with a Buy-to-Fly ratio close to 1.

 

EBM benefits for Aerospace

Additive Manufacturing offers huge potential cost savings in production for the aerospace industry. It also enables designers to create completely new and innovative light weight designs using advanced lattice structures.

Additive Manufacturing is particularly useful where

  • production volumes are relatively low
  • part geometries are complex
  • materials used are expensive
  • materials used are difficult to process by conventional means

The Arcam EBM process is a unique Additive Manufacturing process with its ability to provide a combination of

  • High productivity
  • Excellent material properties
  • High resolution
  • Good surface finish

EBM Applications

On the engine side Arcam has in a joint effort with Avio developed the EBM process for titanium aluminide (TiAl), an inter-metallic material with unique high temperature properties for use in the low pressure turbine stages in modern turbofan engines. Avio will during 2010 set up a pilot production plant for manufacturing parts in TiAl with the EBM process.

Production platform for aerospace