Aero Engine Round Table ‘Additive Manufacturing’ October 3rd, 2019
On Thursday October 3rd, 2019 the NAG in collaboration with the DGTA organized the 9th Aero Engine Round Table at Additive Industries in Eindhoven. The purpose of this session was for its participants to be able to share lessons learned and establish an overview of additive manufacturing strategies in terms of practicality for current as well as future users.
After a short welcome by René van Doorn, chairman at NAG, Daan Kersten, CEO at Additive Industries, presented a general overview of the activities at Additive Industries. He gave insights into the current and possible future markets of integrated industrial 3D metal printing systems with laser beam powder bed fusion technology. A modular end-to-end 3D printing system may increase productivity and drive down total cost per part, thus allowing it to compete with casting at the expense of high-speed milling and turning.
Subsequently, Wilma den Oever, Change Manager at KLM E&M, presented the way KLM is working together with its engineers and technicians. She showed the way KLM gives its employees the chance to be innovative by letting them design new tools and print them with their own 3D-printers.
Stéphane Escalier, Business Development Director at Additive Industries, then gave a presentation about how the aerospace branch could benefit from additive manufacturing as this technology allows for parts to be (re-)designed with weight & cost savings in mind.
The ensuing round table discussion addressed topics such as the certifiability of the technology, whether build-to-spec and build-to-print companies may benefit equally from early adoption, and whether applying AM for repair purposes may accelerate OEM acceptance when compared with new-part production’s OEM acceptance.
The Round Table was made possible by a TKI HTSM grant.
