Abstract
The aviation is a highly engineered industry. It has precise manufacturing requirements. Because of these requirements, the aviation has been forced to be a pioneer for implementation of novel manufacturing techniques such as Computer Aided Design (CAD), Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) and newly-developed materials such as carbon fiber composites. These technologies and materials were firstly adopted by the aviation industry. Many processes and materials were used by other sectors such as automotive, ship construction and white goods etc. after the aviation industry used those as regular ones. On the other hand, the aviation industry is a booming sector because it is leveraged by increasing passenger traffic. Passenger traffic projections show that the aviation industry will continuously expand. Naturally, this expansion will attract many companies into the aviation industry and therefore attraction will conclude a fiercer competition environment in the aviation industry. At the conclusion, the companies in the aviation industry will look for implementation of novel technologies since they will not want to fall behind their competitors. On the other hand, the airworthiness authorities always keep their <i>decision and regulation maker position</i> while the companies are the followers. It can be put forward that the most difficult side of the implementation of novel technologies into aviation industry is to get along with the strict rules and regulations which are put by international and national airworthiness authorities. In this context, the question of <i>how to qualify the additively manufactured parts (AMPs)</i> is waiting for the answer. The additive manufacturing (AM) is a strong process which has been implemented into aviation industry rapidly while the qualification and certification processes still have many challenges. This paper provides the pathway and the steps of qualification for additively manufactured parts (AMPs) besides the categorization of AM technologies and the impact of weight reduction over flight operation cost.
Highlights
additive manufacturing (AM) appears perfectly suited to the aviation industry, allowing lighter parts to be produced with lower cost in less operational time with the same mechanical features as the legacy manufacturing techniques
It is observed that, there is an increasing number of publishing related to AM technology applications in the aerospace industry based on AM’s increasing popularity, Singamneni et al stated that there is a general lack of publishing activity related to quality control and certification of additively manufactured parts (AMPs) [24]
W. et al expressed that the ability to qualify and certify AMPs, including safety-critical metallic parts is a main barrier to its more extensive use [45]
Summary
AM appears perfectly suited to the aviation industry, allowing lighter parts to be produced with lower cost in less operational time with the same mechanical features as the legacy manufacturing techniques. The traditional CNC machining processes are subtractive techniques, and the material wastage could be as high as 98% [2]. Scraps can be as low as 10%, parts’ costs down can be as low as 50%, time-to-market down can be as low as 64%, part weight down can be as low as 64% compared with traditional machining process [5]. Because of these benefits, the AM technique becomes one of the most advantageous manufacturing technologies in the aviation industry
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