Model Airplanes

GKN Plc, a key supplier to Airbus SE, took the unprecedented step of dropping its new chief six weeks before he was even due to start the job, saying it had decided he wasn’t the right person to run the business.

Kevin Cummings, who had led GKN’s aerospace division for almost four years and was handed the top post in September, has left with immediate effect, the Redditch, England-based company, which also has a major automotive division, said Thursday. The surprise announcement sent the stock to a 16-month low.

Anne Stevens, 69, a GKN director who spent 16 years at Ford Motor Co. where she was chief operating officer for the Americas, will instead become CEO on an interim basis when current chief Nigel Stein retires at the end of the year. GKN didn’t explain the switch, beyond saying that the board had concluded the group’s development “is best delivered under alternative leadership.”

At the same time, GKN said in a in a statement that write-offs at North American plants, which make parts for Airbus, helicopter producer Sikorsky and Honda Motor Co.’s new business-jet arm, could jump by as much as 130 million pounds ($171 million).

GKN shares fell 10 percent to 280 pence, the lowest intraday price since July 19, 2016, and were down 6.2 percent at 291.50 pence as of 1:41 p.m. in London. The stock has lost 12 percent this year, valuing the group at 5

Article source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-16/gkn-ditches-ceo-designate-before-he-starts-amid-alabama-unit-woe

From model airplanes to drones to jets and rockets, you may be amazed to find out how many aircraft are flying today with 3D printed parts. And this trend will only continue to increase, propelled further by consortiums such as the UK’s ATI Horizon Additive Manufacturing as they work to develop progressive manufacturing methods in aerospace.

Horizon AM is currently focused on new additive manufacturing techniques for producing metal, lightweight parts for aircraft. They will be creating production methods that are more affordable and create less waste, allowing for near net shapes to be produced on demand.

“Having established viable methods to produce flying components manufactured in this way the aim is to exploit the high geometric complexity and multi-material capability of these manufacturing methods in order to realise advanced aircraft components for the next generation of aircraft, thereby establishing the UK at the forefront of aerospace design and manufacturing,” states the Aerospace Technology Institute in a recent press release about Horizon and a new case study.

The consortium was founded in 2014 by a group of partners interested in creating new AM techniques for aerospace parts. Led

Article source: https://3dprint.com/194923/horizon-additive-manufacturing/

Defense Industry Moves Toward Multi-Material 3D Printing

3D printed aluminum connectors for a carbon composite structure

Photo: CIMP-3D at the Applied Research Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University

As additive manufacturing technology becomes more prevalent, engineers are now working on ways to 3D print different materials together to produce cost-efficient and sustainable parts for the aerospace industry.

Additive manufacturing involves the process of using modeling software and specialized equipment to build layers of material into a three-dimensional object.
Primes including Lockheed Martin and Boeing, sub-prime contractors and university and government laboratories are all exploring how to 3D print a component that contains elements of different materials, particularly metals. This could lead to parts that provide sturdiness in one area and thermal conductivity in others, cutting down on development time and making more durable products.

Applying additive manufacturing to create multi-functional materials would allow engineers to tailor design requirements and optimize the parts’ material accordingly, said Zach Loftus, an additive manufacturing fellow at Lockheed. The company employs 3D printing to build flight parts and tools for many of its space systems.

In traditional manufacturing, a component made of a high-strength material may be connected by a bolt or some other mechanism to a part designed to conduct heat, he explained. “In the future, I think you’re going to see some material systems

Article source: http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2017/10/30/defense-industry-moves-toward-multi-material-3d-printing

Emirates has used cutting-edge 3D printing technology to manufacture components for its aircraft cabins.

The airline, which placed a US$15.1 billion order for 40 Boeing Dreamliners at the Dubai Airshow this week, said it had reached a significant milestone by using selective laser sintering (SLS), a new 3D printing technique to produce video monitor shrouds.

Emirates worked with 3D Systems, a US-based 3D printing equipment and material manufacturer and services provider, and with UUDS, a European aviation engineering and certification office and services provider based in France, to print the first batch of video monitor shrouds using 3D Systems’ (SLS) technology platform. Emirates worked with UUDS to develop 3D printed aircraft cabin air vent grills that have received EASA certification and have already been installed on aircraft for onboard trials.

The SLS technology uses lasers to bind together powdered plastic into the required shape defined by a 3D model and is different from the fusion deposition modelling (FDM) technique normally used for printing aircraft parts. The material used to print Emirates’ video monitor shrouds is a new thermoplastic developed by 3D Systems – Duraform ProX FR1200 – with excellent flammability resistance properties and surface quality suitable for commercial aerospace business applications, Emirates said.

“Over the last two years Emirates Engineering has been actively exploring 3D printing for aircraft cabin parts as it is a transformational technology that can be used to achieve an increase in efficiency and productivity,” said Ahmed Safa, Emirates’ senior vice president- engineering support services.

“We worked with a number of

Article source: https://www.thenational.ae/business/aviation/emirates-pioneers-new-3d-printing-for-aircraft-parts-1.676212