July 9, 2015 | By Simon
While we’ve been seeing a rapid amount of growth in the adoption rate of additive manufacturing technologies in multiple industries within the last year, companies in the aerospace industry in particular seem to be showing an increased interest by the day.
While the ease of creating custom parts within a matter of hours or days is enough to entice many manufacturers, a recent study funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Manufacturing Office found that aircraft weight can be reduced by 7% just by replacing conventional means of manufacturing with additive manufacturing.
Just earlier this week, Constellium, Stelia Aerospace & CT Ingenierie partnered up to create large scale 3D prints such as 3D printed airplane fuselages - a huge development both for the aerospace industry and additive manufacturing as a whole. Today, yet another initiative is being launched to further explore the near future of additive manufacturing in the aerospace industry.
Neff Capital Management LLC, a private equity firm based in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, has announced that they have established a new company whose primary focus is on developing production parts for aerospace and defense original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) around the world using additive manufacturing methods.
The new company, which is called Sintavia, LLC, will be headquartered in Davie, FL and will use their 3D printers to produce parts that are based on the exacting quality control standards required by the aerospace and defense industry.
Additionally, an on-site state-of-the-art metallurgical and metrology lab will supplement their production facility for research and development purposes. Currently, the lab is able to perform a number of tests for ensuring the quality control of their production - which range from hardness, fatigue and impact testing to temperature and tensile testing.
“We are excited to be a part of the coming industrial revolution within the aerospace and defense industry,” said Brian Neff, Managing Partner of Neff Capital Management. “Over the next few years, as more and more production is shifted to additive manufacturing within this industry, serial manufacturers with exceptional quality control, like Sintavia, will be in high demand by the OEMs.”
Neff Capital will be rolling out their $10 million initial capital investment over the next two years as Sintavia better establishes itself and grows in capability to meet more demanding production orders. Among other equipment that the company will be using for both production and research include three SLM Solutions SLM 280HL dual-laser systems for metal part production, an ATOS Triple Scan blue light scanner, a Hitachi S-3400N-II Scanning Electron Microscope, and an Ametek SPECTROMAXx F Optical Emission Spectroscopy analyzer.
“Within 20 years, there will be a seismic shift in how we manufacture for the aerospace and defense industry. However, producers who do not understand or are incapable of producing parts with repetitive quality will not play a role in the OEM supply chain,” added Neff.
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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