Challenges and Limitations in Additive Manufacturing of Aluminium Alloys for the Aerospace Industry

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) processes as the relatively new rapid prototyping technologies for the fabrication of high strength lightweight alloys are one of the most appropriate methods to meet the rising demands in the aerospace industry. In this sense, additively manufactured lightweight aerospace aluminium alloys belong to 2xxx and 7xxx series are extensively used in aircraft structures to achieve the decrease in the weight of aircraft structures. AM processes are the appropriate manufacturing techniques to be used in the aerospace industry to fabricate the aerospace components having complex and unique shapes, which is not possible by means of the conventional manufacturing processes. As a result, AM processes have recently an increased attention in academia and industry. However, the use of AM processes in the aerospace industry is restricted resulting from several factors such as the lack of the globally accepted certifications and standards, fabrication speed, additional surface finishing cost, limitation of the production size, achievable precision and micro-fatigue occurrence regarding to the AM of the aerospace components. In this paper, challenges and limitations in the AM of lightweight aerospace aluminium alloys were investigated.

Keywords: Additive manufacturing; 3D printing; Aerospace aluminium alloys; Light weighting; Aerospace.

DOI: 10.7176/JSTR/6-05-04