[China Aluminum Industry Network] As the representative technology of the third industrial revolution manufacturing field, the development of 3D printing has received widespread attention from all walks of life. The metal high-performance additive manufacturing technology (metal 3D printing technology) is considered by the experts in the industry as a difficult and high-standard development branch in the 3D printing field, and it plays a decisive role in industrial manufacturing. Nowadays, industrial manufacturing companies all over the world are vigorously developing metal additive manufacturing technologies, especially for aerospace manufacturing companies. They even spend a lot of financial and material resources to increase their research and development efforts to ensure that they have the leading edge in technology.
In the context of the US manufacturing retreat strategy and the background of German Industry 4.0, the international environment also provides 3D printing with indispensable nutrition for its growth. Whether it is the newly established national additive manufacturing center in the United States or the British Technology and Strategy Committee, aerospace is regarded as the primary application area of ​​additive manufacturing technology. In October 2012, Lu Yongxiang, former president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and vice chairman of the National People's Congress Committee, made it clear that China’s 3D technology will also be used first in the aerospace field.
As the crowning jewel of the industrial sector, the aerospace manufacturing industry has integrated a state-owned and sophisticated technology. This is the field of support for the implementation of the national strategic plan and the political situation. The metal 3D technology, as a brand-new manufacturing technology, has outstanding application advantages in the aerospace field and has obvious service benefits. Mainly reflected in several aspects:
(1) Shorten the research and development cycle of new aerospace equipment.
Aerospace technology is a symbol of national defense strength and an embodiment of national politics. Competition among countries around the world is extremely fierce. Therefore, all countries want to try to develop newer weapons and equipment at a faster pace and make themselves invincible in the field of national defense. The metal 3D printing technology has greatly reduced the manufacturing process of high-performance metal components, especially high-performance large-scale components. There is no need to develop the molds used in the parts manufacturing process, which will greatly shorten the product development cycle.
Li Daguang, a professor of military logistics and military technology equipment in the National Defense University, said that in the 1980s and 1990s, it took at least 10-20 years to develop a new generation of fighter jets. The outstanding advantage of 3D printing technology is that it does not require machining or any molds. You can generate parts of any shape directly from computer graphics data, so if you rely on 3D printing technology and other information technologies, it takes less than 3 years to develop a new fighter. Coupled with the high flexibility of the technology, high-performance flexible manufacturing features, and free and rapid molding of complex parts, metal 3D printing will shine in the aerospace field, providing strong technical support for the manufacture of defense equipment.
The central flange part on the domestically-made large aircraft C919 is a typical application of metal 3D printing technology in the aviation field. This structure is more than 3 meters long and is a long-term aerospace structural element printed by metal 3D internationally. If traditional manufacturing methods are used, this part needs to be forged from an oversized tonnage press, which not only takes time and labor, but also wastes raw materials. At present, there is no equipment capable of producing such large-scale structural parts in China.
Therefore, in order to ensure the development process and safety of the aircraft, we must order this part from abroad, and the period from ordering to installation is as long as more than two years, which seriously hinders the development of the aircraft. The center flange strip printed with metal 3D printing technology has a development time of one month or so. Its structural strength has reached or even surpassed the standards for forgings use, and it fully complies with the standards for aviation use. The use of metal 3D printing technology has greatly reduced the development of large aircraft in China and allowed the development work to proceed smoothly.
This is just a microcosm of the application of metal 3D printing technology in the aerospace field.
(2) Improve the utilization of materials, save expensive strategic materials, and reduce manufacturing costs.
Most of the aerospace manufacturing industry is using expensive strategic materials, such as difficult-to-process metal materials such as titanium alloys and nickel-base superalloys. The use of materials by traditional manufacturing methods is very low, generally not more than 10%, or even only 2%-5%. The great waste of materials also means that the machining process is complex and the production time period is long. If it is those technical parts that are difficult to process, the processing cycle will be greatly increased, the manufacturing cycle will be significantly extended, and the manufacturing cost will increase.
Metal 3D printing technology as a near net shaping technology can be put into use only with a small amount of follow-up processing. The utilization rate of materials reaches 60%, and sometimes even reaches over 90%. This not only reduces manufacturing costs, saves raw materials, but also meets the country's sustainable development strategy.
In a symposium at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2014, Professor Wang Huaming of Beihang said that China now can print out the C919 cockpit glass window frame in just 55 days. Wang Huaming also said that an European aircraft manufacturing company stated that they will produce the same thing for at least 2 years, and that light molds will cost 2 million US dollars, while China's adoption of 3D printing technology not only shortens the production cycle, increases the efficiency, but also saves Raw materials have greatly reduced production costs.
(3) Optimize the structure of parts, reduce weight, reduce stress concentration, and increase service life.
For aerospace weapons and equipment, weight loss is its eternal theme. It can not only increase the flexibility of flying equipment during the flight, but also increase the carrying capacity, save fuel, and reduce flight costs. However, traditional manufacturing methods have already played a good part in weight reduction. It is no longer realistic to think of further efforts.
However, the application of 3D technology can optimize the structure of complex parts. Under the premise of guaranteeing performance, the complex structure is transformed and redesigned into a simple structure, thereby reducing the weight. And by optimizing the structure of the parts, the stress of the parts can be presented in a more rational distribution, reducing the risk of fatigue cracks, thereby increasing the service life. Through the reasonable and complex internal flow channel structure to achieve temperature control, the use of design and materials can be optimized, or free forming of different parts of parts can be achieved through the compounding of materials to meet the use standards.
The fighter's landing gear is the key part to withstand high loads and high impacts. This requires parts with high strength and high impact resistance. The landing gear used by the US F16 fighter aircraft using 3D technology not only meets the standards of use, but also has an average life expectancy of 2.5 times that of the original.
(4) Repair of parts.
Metal 3D printing technology is not only used for manufacturing, but also its application value in the repair of metal high-performance parts is not lower than the manufacturing itself. As far as the current situation is concerned, the potential of metal 3D printing technology in repair molding is even higher than the manufacturing itself.
Take high-performance integral turbine blade parts as an example. When a blade on a disk is damaged, the entire turbine blade disk will be scrapped, and the direct economic loss is worth more than a million. This type of loss may be irreversible and painful, but based on the layer-by-layer manufacturing of 3D printing, we only need to treat the damaged blade as a special substrate and laser-shaping the damaged part. , you can restore the part shape, and the performance to meet the requirements, even higher than the use of the substrate performance. Due to the controllability in the 3D printing process, the negative effects of its repair are limited.
In fact, parts made from 3D printing are easier to repair and have better matching. Compared with other manufacturing technologies, in the 3D repair process, it is difficult to maintain consistency in the organization, composition, and performance of the repaired area and the substrate due to the gap between the manufacturing process and the repair parameters. However, this problem does not exist when repairing 3D formed parts. The repair process can be regarded as a continuation of the additive manufacturing process, and the repair zone and the substrate can achieve a better match. This achieves a virtuous circle of parts manufacturing process, low-cost manufacturing + low-cost repair = high economic efficiency.
(5) Cooperate with traditional manufacturing technologies to complement each other.
Traditional manufacturing technology is suitable for the production of large-volume forming products, while 3D printing technology is more suitable for the manufacture of personalized or refined structural products. Combining 3D printing technology with traditional manufacturing technologies, each has its own strengths and gives full play to their respective advantages, so that manufacturing technology can exert greater power.
For example, for surfaces that require high-quality performance, but the center requires performance in general parts, you can use the traditional manufacturing technology to produce the center-shaped parts, and then use the laser three-dimensional molding technology to directly form the surface parts on the center parts. The surface performance is high, the center requires general parts, saving the complexity of the process and reducing the production process. This complementary production combination has important practical application value in the production of parts and components.
Furthermore, for a component with a simple external structure but a complex internal structure, when a conventional manufacturing technology is used to manufacture an internal complex structure, the process is cumbersome, and the subsequent processing steps are complex, which results in production costs and prolongs the production cycle. External use of traditional manufacturing technologies and internal 3D printing technology are used for near net shaping. This requires only a small number of subsequent processes to complete the production of the product. This shortens the production cycle, reduces costs, and brings out a perfect match between traditional technologies and new technologies. The combination of manufacturing achieves mutual complementarity.
As the primary application field of 3D printing technology, aerospace has obvious technical advantages. However, this does not mean that metal 3D printing is omnipotent. In practical production, there are still many problems that need to be decided in its technical application. For example, current 3D printing is still unable to adapt to large-scale production, can not meet high-precision requirements, and can not achieve high-efficiency manufacturing. Moreover, one of the key factors restricting the development of 3D printing is the high cost of its equipment, and most of the civilian fields cannot afford such high equipment manufacturing costs. However, with the continuous development of materials technology, computer technology and laser technology, manufacturing costs will continue to decrease to meet the manufacturing cost bearing capacity of the manufacturing industry. By then, 3D printing will shine in the manufacturing sector.
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