Additive Manufacturing Technologies in the Aviation Industry in Pursuit of Weight Optimization

Abstract

Digitalization is an important evolution for the aviation industry. Implementation into the new technologies has many benefits such as reducing a company’s overall costs and increasing revenue. In this manner, the report “Digital Transformation Monitor, Industry 4.0 in Aeronautics: IoT Applications” was released in June 2017 by the European Commission. In accordance with the mentioned report, in the aviation industry, the expected impact of digitalization is a reduction of - 3.7% in costs and an increase of + 2.7% in revenue annually (EC, 2017). Emphasizing the huge budgets of the aviation industry these percentages mean a lot in the name of savings. So, it can be said that digitalization is rapidly impacting the manufacturing world in the aviation industry and it will continue do so.