| Recently, Patria, a Finnish aerospace and defense solutions company, announced that it has successfully completed the first flight of an F/A-18 Hornet fighter equipped with 3D print engine components. This event marks the first time that 3D printed aircraft engine parts have entered Finland. Sky.  The part is printed in 3D from Inconel 625 (a nickel-based superalloy) and has been under development for the past two years. It was designed by Patria's engineers and meets MDOA standards (approved by the military design organization). Patria was The Finnish Military Aviation Administration (FMAA) granted MDOA approval to comply with European military aviation requirements (EMARs).
January 3, 2018 The first successful 3D printing unit was built into the F / A-18 'Hornet' engine and after two years of hard work, Patria's team achieved significant results in 3D printed parts Ville Ahonen, vice president of aviation business at Patria, said: 'For this part, development took two years to explore the manufacturing process for 3D printed parts, from drawing to practical applications.'
Of course, Patria did not put all the 3D printing resources of this unique engine component into use as the company is also exploring other technologies and applications in aerospace and defense, and Finnish companies are planning to capitalize on the benefits offered by additive manufacturing.
'Making parts using 3D printing technology enables faster processes, from customer needs to finished products, as well as creating newer and better structures, and we will continue our study of additive manufacturing methods to make new technologies more efficient,' adds Ahonen.
In Finland, Patria Aviation Oy has been a strong supporter of additive manufacturing technology.In addition to adopting 3D printing technology at its own R & D facilities, the company also actively participated in the 3D-based 3D Printed research project.
Launched in 2016, the project focuses on the development of 3D printing components and relies on the cooperation of 13 participating companies, including Patria The ultimate goal of the project is to establish a digital network of 3D printing spare parts which will facilitate the dynamic digital manufacturing process Adopt, including 3D printing.
Last November, Aalto University and VTT Finland announced some results of a two-year study that showed that about 5% of the spares have the potential of digitized storage (on-demand processing) rather than storage-intensive storage facilities Resources. "Sini Metsa-Kortelainen, the research project manager, said at the time:" Now that industry has every opportunity to drive business through the development of spare parts as a key area of development, 3D printing technology is in the high-quality manufacturing stage. "
Now, Patria in Finland has shown that 3D printing components are ready for end use. |
