3D Printing Titanium in Aerospace Manufacturing Applications

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Titanium superalloys are highly beneficial to the aerospace industry, helping companies to reduce their carbon footprint by making planes more fuel-efficient. 3D printing of components constructed from titanium superalloys has become popular in this sector for its convenience, speed, and production of lightweight components.

A recent partnership betweenTitomicand上升航空航天is likely to further drive 3D printing of titanium in the aerospace industry.

Additive manufacturing (AM) has moved on from producing expensive, one-off prototypes to being adopted to revolutionize entire industries, changing the way their essential products are manufactured. One of the largest adopters of AM is the aerospace industry. Both sectors are being driven by innovation, with developments feeding into each other.

Cutting Aviation Emissions with Lightweight Aircraft

在过去的几年中，实施AM的成本大大降低了，几年前，3D打印机的成本约为50,000美元，今天的价格约为1,800美元。

航空航天的压力越来越大，以减少燃料使用，以降低成本并降低其碳足迹。每次长途飞行通常产生的碳排放量比全年可能造成的人更多。

Air travel is increasingly popular, with a 300% growth from 1990 to 2019. With the world scrambling to reduce emissions in a bid to reverse the detrimental impact of climate change, the industry is looking for innovative ways to reduce their carbon footprint.

Reducing the weight of the aircraft is an essential strategy for making flying more fuel-efficient, as lighter planes require less fuel to carry them the same distance. Therefore, research into developing lightweight materials that work just as well or better than current materials has been a focus of technological development in aircraft design.

Titanium Superalloys为航空业提供了减少关键组件重量的绝佳机会。该材料对腐蚀具有高度耐药性，具有较高的强度与重量比，并且在极高的温度下性能很好，因此适合于为平面创建零件。

As a result of switching components of aircraft to those made from titanium, the weight of the craft is lighter, making it more fuel-efficient. Companies in both the aviation and space sectors are shifting from using aluminum alloys to manufacturing aircraft and spacecraft components from titanium alloys.

Switching to Titanium in Aerospace Manufacturing

Using titanium in place of conventional materials has proven to significantly reduce the weight of crucial aircraft components. For example, the average turbine for a jumbo jet weighs roughly 6350 kg. However, the same engine constructed in part from titanium weighs around 340 kg less.

Rolls-Roycehas been exploring the potential of using titanium in fan blades and fan cases to reduce the weight of their engines.

The chief engineer atUTC Aerospace Systems, Geoff Hunt, reports that the weight of the landing gear can be reduced by thousands of kilograms by switching to lighter metal alloys such as titanium.

Titanium has also emerged as an incredibly useful material in the space industry, with many vehicles manufactured by NASA being constructed from the material.

3D Printing in the Aerospace Industry

近年来，航空航天行业的3D印刷迅速增长。正是这种制造技术有助于提高航空航天行业钛制造的声誉和可采用性。

The use of titanium in 3D printing is predicted to grow rapidly over the coming years, increasing from a market value of $518 million in 2022 to over $1 billion by 2026. While several markets will be driving this growth, such as the dental and medical sectors, aerospace will also be a major industry adopting titanium manufacturing.

Titanium has many properties that make it beneficial to the aerospace sector. However, its ability to be used in 3D printing is another factor fueling its widespread adoption in aerospace manufacturing.

Find out more about 3D printing technology.

3D printing is a very advantageous manufacturing technique for aerospace, especially now costs related to set-up and running have significantly reduced. 3D printing can produce one-off items on-site. This means that large production runs are no longer required, so components can be created as and when they are needed, reducing waste and wait times. As they can be printed on-site, not only does this allow the necessary components to be instantly available, it further reduces the emissions related to the industry by removing the need to courier aircraft parts.

Titomic is an Australian company known for leveraging advanced materials and 3D printing technology. It has successfully demonstrated that aircraft components, including the airframe, blades, castings, discs, fastenings, and landing gear, can be manufactured using titanium together with 3D printing.

The aviation industry is the perfect landscape to grow and develop the process of 3D-printing parts. This is because incredibly high safety measures must be met by all parts used in planes, forcing 3D printing to create components to the highest levels of accuracy, reliability, and quality. Approved components manufactured from titanium alloys for the aviation industry are likely to be suitable for use in other sectors that also operate in highly demanding environments.

Learn more about the future of 3D printing in aerospace

The Partnership between Titomic and Ascent Aerospace

最近，美国航空航天和防御工具和自动化提供商之间签署了一项协议，以使用Titomic动力学融合方法制造航空航天工具。

视频来源：titomic/youtube.com

The partnership will operate over two phases, the first being the validation phase, where Titomic will use the TKF9000 system to create an approved Invar36 tool for an Ascent customer. The process will undergo testing to determine its feasibility as a process on a larger scale.

The second phase of the project will seeTitomicandAscent制定一种联合销售策略，以在较短的周转时间供应航空航天工具。

如果成功的话，该项目可能会导致航空航天行业内的钛组件的3D印刷增长，而公司则从较短的交货时间，高质量的组件和减少碳排放中受益。

References and Further Reading

航空航天，钛和3D印刷在向上螺旋。3D Fab +打印。詹姆斯·查特（James Chater）。https://3dfabprint.com/aerospace-titanium-and-3d-printing-inward-spiral/

Airlines bid to beat their weight problem. The Financial Times. Peggy Hollinger.https://www.ft.com/content/6ce66d16-bd6a-11e6-8b45-b8b81dd5d5080

上升航空航天to employ Titomic metal 3D printing for aerospace tooling. TCT Magazine.https://www.tctmagazine.com/3d-printing-news/titomic-metal-3d-printing-tooling-ascent-aerospace/

Aviation and aerospace industry. GE Additive.https://www.ge.com/additive/additive-manufacturing/industries/aviation-aerospace

航空和空间。滴虫。https://www.titomic.com/aviation-space.html

您的航班如何像一年中许多人一样发射二氧化碳。守护者。Niko Kommenda。https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2019/jul/19/carbon-calculator-how-taking-one-flight-emits-as-much-as-many-people-do-in-a-year

SmarTech Publishing: Revenues from 3D-Printed Titanium to Reach Almost $520 Million by 2022. SmarTech.https://www.smartechanalysis.com/news/revenues-3dp-titanium-2022/

3D printing reaches new heights. Aerospace Manufacturing.https://www.aero-mag.com/3d-printing-reaches-new-heights/

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