By Melissa Donovan
The aviation industry looks to three-dimensional (3D) printing for a range of solutions, including tooling. Since many flying machines produced today are made up of unique parts, off-the-shelf tools aren’t an option when it comes to piecing them together. Additive manufacturing (AM) offers an affordable method of producing unique tools.
Air Force Needs
The military base in Woensdrecht is the primary maintenance location of the Royal Netherlands Air Force as well as home of the Air Force’s academy. Here, staff regularly perform maintenance and repairs on helicopters, fighter jets, and cargo planes including Chinooks, Apaches, NH90s, and F16s.
These complex, customized aircraft present the staff with many different parts and systems to deal with. Creating tooling for these planes using 3D printers allows them to reduce production time, minimize costs, increase team innovation, and enhance flexibility.
On site, a workshop run by Bas Janssen, member of the Ambition Innovation Results division, Royal Netherlands Air Force, includes manufacturing techniques like laser cutting and 3D printing. He hosts meetings for maintenance students and engineers to help determine innovative ways to overcome challenges in their daily work.
Through the meetings, Janssen and his colleagues realized how important 3D printing was to the tooling used in building aircraft. Instead of outsourcing, they turned to their Ultimaker 3 printers to produce numerous parts, saving time and money.
The Ultimaker 3 delivers a reliable 3D printing experience. Its dual extrusion system, automatic build plate leveling, NFC spool recognition, and hot-swappable print cores make it easy to 3D print complex geometries with high uptime and repeatability.
Custom Tools
Since implementing tooling manufacturing in house, a number of products were produced using AM at the Royal Netherlands Air Force.
The first example, when jet engines are transported, certain openings need to be covered with a special cap. These parts are expensive to purchase and slow to be delivered. Using the Ultimaker 3 it only takes two hours to print the part.
Special tools for adjusting equipment are also created with the Ultimaker 3 printers. Certain helicopter parts are difficult to configure when installed, but by using a 3D printed part, these adjustments can be made before mounting to the helicopter. This saves the team multiple hours per aircraft.
For metal parts that have to be CNC machined, the 3D printers are used for prototyping and fit testing. This allows for cost effectively going back and forth on designs prior to making the actual part.
Expanding Capabilities
With the success of the Ultimaker 3, the Royal Netherlands Air Force expanded their capabilities by adding the Ultimaker S5 to its production portfolio.
The Ultimaker S5 is built to run continuously and maximize uptime. Its best-in-class technical specifications deliver reliable performance. Offering a build volume of 13×9.4×11.8 inches, it is compatible with high-strength glass and carbon fiber filament and prints with any 2.85 millimeter material.
The addition of the Ultimaker S5 solidifies Janssen’s belief that every Air Force maintenance location have a 3D printer on site. “Our transition to a fifth generation Air Force can only be done with people who realize that they can be a part of that change now, not later. Ultimaker makes it possible to do just that—help people understand what AM can do for them right now without a long learning curve. The current software and hardware help people to make their idea come to life,” concludes Janssen.
Fantastic Flight
Using its Ultimaker 3D printers, the Royal Netherlands Air Force cost-effectively manufactures tools for its fleet of helicopters, fighter jets, and cargo planes at a moment’s notice.
Mar20, Industrial Print Magazine