The Qualification of the Additively Manufactured Parts in the Aviation Industry

Abstract

The aviation is a highly engineered industry. It has precise manufacturing requirements. Because of these requirements, the aviation has been forced to be a pioneer for implementation of novel manufacturing techniques such as Computer Aided Design (CAD), Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) and newly-developed materials such as carbon fiber composites. These technologies and materials were firstly adopted by the aviation industry. Many processes and materials were used by other sectors such as automotive, ship construction and white goods etc. after the aviation industry used those as regular ones. On the other hand, the aviation industry is a booming sector because it is leveraged by increasing passenger traffic. Passenger traffic projections show that the aviation industry will continuously expand. Naturally, this expansion will attract many companies into the aviation industry and therefore attraction will conclude a fiercer competition environment in the aviation industry. At the conclusion, the companies in the aviation industry will look for implementation of novel technologies since they will not want to fall behind their competitors. On the other hand, the airworthiness authorities always keep their decision and regulation maker position while the companies are the followers. It can be put forward that the most difficult side of the implementation of novel technologies into aviation industry is to get along with the strict rules and regulations which are put by international and national airworthiness authorities. In this context, the question of how to qualify the additively manufactured parts (AMPs) is waiting for the answer. The additive manufacturing (AM) is a strong process which has been implemented into aviation industry rapidly while the qualification and certification processes still have many challenges. This paper provides the pathway and the steps of qualification for additively manufactured parts (AMPs) besides the categorization of AM technologies and the impact of weight reduction over flight operation cost.