China3D printingNet October 28th, Industry3D printingAircraft manufacturer Essentium has been awarded a four-year contract by the United States Air Force (USAF) to promote the development and deployment of advanced additive manufacturing (AM) solutions for tools, ground support, maintenance repairs, and overhauls. The aging fleet, as well as flight certification parts for military aircraft and ground vehicles. The project is called “Air Force Advanced Additive Manufacturing” and is part of the more than $550 million Strategic Financing (STRATFi) program undertaken by the new United States Air Force Cooperation Organization AFVentures, which aims to identify and promote “big bets” with potential for protection. Technology and promote the dominance of the U.S. Air Force in the future.
This multi-year cooperation contract has the potential to expand additive manufacturing and develop certified materials to produce stable quality additive manufacturing parts at unparalleled speed and cost, thereby saving data for the U.S. Air Force and the National Guard (NGB). One million U.S. dollars. The Essentium-USAF project team will use Essentium’s high-speed extrusion (HSE)3D printingThe platform tests and develops new materials and new processes to protect and improve USAF’s competitive and strategic capabilities.
Essentium’s HSE system can be used for fast parts production with its printing speed, and can also reduce the time required for certification of new materials used in flight, so it can innovatively respond to production, supply chain and procurement challenges.Before the AFVentures launch event on March 12, 2020, the state of Texas3D printingThe machine provider was selected along with 20 other companies. At that time, Will Roper, Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Air Force for the acquisition, announced the creation of AFVentures as “an umbrella organization of the U.S. Air Force’s efforts to cooperate with small businesses to provide key technologies for fighter jets.”
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High Speed Extrusion (HSE) of Essentium3D printingplatform. Image courtesy of Essentium.
According to a report by the US Air Force, these 21 “big bet” companies will obtain four-year fixed-price contracts through AFVentures’ STRATFi program, with a total value of more than $550 million. This amount includes more than $100 million in Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funds, more than $100 million in U.S. Air Force funds, and $350 million in private investment. These financing rounds are likely to increase in the next few years. . In his speech in Washington, D.C., Roper pointed out that due to the important source of disruptive technologies in the world today, the United States needs to invest in small businesses to expand its industrial base and maintain an advantage over global competitors and rivals. He also said that small business investment is critical to expanding the US industrial base and maintaining its competitive advantage.
As for the Essentium project, Nathan Parker, Deputy Program Executive Officer of the Office of the U.S. Air Force’s Office of Rapid Maintenance, suggested: “Due to cutting-edge technologies such as Essentium’s additive manufacturing solutions, the development of safety-critical aircraft parts is more important than ever. Closer. Essentium demonstrated that it has the ability to use Essentium HSE 3D printingThe platform has the expertise and ability to create parts with consistent replication effects. We will work together to promote the development of additive manufacturing technology; to perform aircraft maintenance faster, thereby greatly reducing the time to deliver parts to keep our fighters ready. “
The new contract will also help NGB increase its capabilities to accelerate the production of parts for its aging air and ground vehicle fleet. Essentium recommended that USAF be under constant pressure to speed up aircraft maintenance, reduce costs, and get the aircraft back into the air quickly. Although it was the youngest of the four branches of the US military-born from the Army Signal Corps in 1947 and later became its own unit, the number of the Air Force did not increase during its establishment after 9/11. Instead, as the purchase of new aircraft failed to offset the planned retirement of the old aircraft, it became smaller and smaller.
Due to structural cracking and corrosion problems, the widespread use of many aircraft has resulted in increased maintenance and repair costs. Many of the Air Force’s more than 5,300 aircraft in service are aging and replacement parts are scarce, but finding a manufacturer willing to restore parts that may not have been ordered for many years is also a challenge. Essentium said that ordering one or two parts at a time is very expensive, and the waiting time is particularly long, which often forces the U.S. Air Force to swallow parts from the “Aircraft Bone Yard” at Davis-Montham Air Force Base. In addition, replacing a large number of obsolete aircraft with newer models can become very expensive, reaching as high as $26 billion per year by the mid-2030s.And such as3D printingSuch implementation technologies can extend the service life and reduce the cost of operating and maintaining these aging aircraft systems.
The Air Force’s Assistant Secretary for Procurement, Technology and Logistics Will Roper (Will Roper) at the AFVentures launch ceremony on March 12, 2020.Image courtesy of the U.S. Air Force/Andy Morataya
China3D printingNet Comments: As a supplement to the hardware functions, Essentium engineers will use their expertise in the field of materials science to provide direct substitutes for military specification (MIL specification) materials (such as phenolic resin), which is a commonly used resin-based composite Material, suitable for panels and armors and craftsmanship of military vehicles. The team claims that its goal is to certify four times the amount of material in less time and cost compared to the solutions currently available to the US Air Force.
“The sky is the limit of the potential benefits of the US Air Force’s additive manufacturing. In addition to reducing operating costs by tens of millions of dollars, we will also work with our STRATFi partners. The strategic capabilities provided through this program will help end aircraft parking on the tarmac. The days of waiting for simple parts replacement. Elisa Teipel, chief development officer and co-founder of Essentium, suggested,3D printingYou can make them fly again. “We are very pleased to receive this contract and work with our government customers to help promote major advances in the manufacturing of military parts and improve the U.S. Air Force’s military leadership.”
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