The AMOS Project is Investigating Repair and Maintenance Technologies for the Aerospace Industry

The Additive Manufacturing Optimisation and Simulation (AMOS) project

There has been enormous progress in terms of aircraft safety in the past two decades. However, last year, the Aviation Safety Network recorded a total of 15 fatal airliner accidents, resulting in 556 deaths. With an estimated worldwide air traffic of about 37,800,000 flights per year and over three million passengers flying on any given day, an aviation industry objective is to keep their aircraft from potential failures with faster on-demand repairs and lower costs. For the last few years, we have seen how 3D printing techniques have been well received in the aerospace industry; the technology is transforming prototyping, the manufacture and maintenance of end-use parts, as well as the production of custom pieces; even the FAA has been developing a comprehensive regulatory plan to deal with aerospace’s industry adoption of 3D printing technology. One international research project in particular has been carrying out an investigation to help the industry understand the pros and cons of how additive manufacturing technology can help with the repair of aircraft parts. Led by the University of Sheffield’s Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), the Additive Manufacturing Optimisation and Simulation (AMOS) project focuses on additive technologies already being used in the aerospace industry. It also addresses the potential of different direct energy deposition (DED) methods, like a range of techniques which combine conventional welding tools with automated control to accurately deposit and melt metal powder or wire, or the wire-feed gas tungsten arc process used by Nuclear AMRC’s bulk additive cell. The project’s team is trying to see how these techniques can reduce the time and cost of regular maintenance and repair for aircrafts, while decreasing material waste and extending the life of expensive components. 

According to Yaoyao Fiona Zhao, a professor at McGill University’s Additive Design and Manufacturing Lab, “the project will provide a fundamental understanding of thermal and mechanical behaviour of powder and wire material during deposition, and also a simulation and optimisation platform for industrial partners to further develop their component-specific applications”.

McGill students study additive cell at Nuclear AMRC to feed into defect detection and process planning work

AMOS is a limited time project that began its research on February of 2016 and has an end-date on January, 2020. With over 2.9 million dollars invested, it is one of the first European-Canadian projects to be funded under the ‘Mobility For Growth’ collaboration in aeronautics R&D. The project focuses on several key Direct Energy Deposition AM processes that have great potential to be used as cost-effective and efficient repairing and re-manufacturing processes for aerospace components, such as turbine blades and landing gears. If successful, eventually the project will aid in reducing the weakness of aerospace components at the design stage and extend their life cycles.

The AMOS team

“There’s a host of additive manufacturing technologies available to aerospace manufacturers, but they tend to be focused on new production rather than repairing damaged parts; and the AMOS project is bringing together some of the world’s leading research organisations and companies to identify which additive technologies are best suited for repair and remanufacture, and develop them for commercial use,” explained Rosemary Gault, the European project coordinator at the University of Sheffield AMRC. 

The AMOS consortium includes nine partners from Canada, France, Sweden and the UK, including research organisations, top-tier aerospace manufacturers, and specialist technology developers. École Central de Nantes in France;  GKN Aerospace Engine Systems, McGill University of Montreal and jet engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney are some of the partners. It is supported by the European Commission through the Horizon 2020 programme and by Canadian funding agencies CARIC and NSERC.

An AMOS team-member working on bulk-additive-cell

The project will involve a range of additive manufacturing technologies used at the participating centres and companies, including laser powder and robotic laser wire systems operated by Liburdi in Canada, a CNC laser powder facility at Ecole Centrale de Nantes in France, and robotic powder diode laser and wire-feed gas tungsten arc facilities at the University of Sheffield AMRC. At McGill University, AMOS is employing an additive machine which will be used to deposit Titanium. No surprise there, the use of Titanium has grown driven by needs in the aerospace industry, and according to a report by SmarTech, shipments of titanium powders grew by 32% in 2018, with the report predicting a 24% growth in titanium alloy revenues in 2019. As the metal AM market grows, so does the demand for metal powders. Material research will focus on three widely used aerospace alloys: Titanium 6-4 alloy (in wire and powder form), AerMet 100 highstrength stainless steel powder and the nickel-chromium superalloy Inconel 718.

According to AMOS, results for Inconel proved that wire-deposited materials showed better tensile properties than the powder-deposited material, for both the as-built material and the interface region. For titanium wire, yield stress, ultimate tensile strength and elongation are comparable with the standard reference material. However, when using powder, the results were below those of the reference standard. The investigation into Aermet 100 is ongoing but the majority of the tests have been completed, although work is also continuing on low-cycle fatigue and crack propagation.

AMOS Project: the machine used to deposit Titanium, located at McGill University in Montreal

The Nuclear AMRC’s research for Amos has generated huge amounts of metallurgical data for quantifying the variations between conventional, as-built and repaired materials, while investigating the interface integrity, performance and predictability of the alloy materials in different orientations, and how this data can facilitate the development of DED repair standards. The Nuclear AMRC team is now working with samples featuring a series of intentional defects, produced by GKN Aerospace. The samples have been scanned using an innovative inspection process developed by Canadian partners Liburdi and McGill University, and the Nuclear AMRC’s non-destructive testing specialists are benchmarking the new technique against current practice. Looking into automated processes for detecting defects to facilitate DED repairs. According to the specialists, they can now identify certain types of defects such as voids and tool marks relatively easily, while cracks are more challenging.

Aerospace manufacturing companies are trying to make their aircraft fully sustainable and 3D printing technology is helping with that by making parts lighter, which in turn saves the companies money from less fuel consumption, emissions, and increased speed. Most commercial aircraft makers are racing towards additive manufacturing technology to cut costs in repair and maintenance as well. Aircraft maintenance companies are under a lot of financial pressure from carriers, who demand these low cost repairs using high quality processes and spare parts. Other projects, like RepAir, are also tackling this issue with additive manufacturing, engaging in research on future repair and maintenance for the aerospace industry and proving that the technology adds new opportunities for onsite maintenance and repair. With 3D printing taking center stage in aircraft repair and maintenance, as well as becoming the protagonist in many projects worldwide, perhaps we can expect better built structures, higher safety features on planes and even fewer fatal airliner accidents thanks to maintenance efforts on site.

Titomic Signs MoU with China’s Lasting Titanium to Secure Supply of Metal 3D Printing Powders

Titomic, a top metal 3D printing company in Australia well known for its innovative Kinetic Fusion technology, announced that it has just signed its latest Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), this time with Shaanxi Lasting Titanium Industry Co. Ltd, which is China’s largest manufacturer and global exporter of titanium powder and titanium alloy products.

The new MoU, which will commence immediately, will allow Titomic to secure a high quality supply of low-cost, commercially pure titanium powders from Lasting Titanium for use with its Kinetic Fusion technology, which includes benefits such as the ability to join dissimilar metals and composites for engineered properties in a single structure and a decreased time to market, thanks to its high deposition speeds.

“This MoU will provide exclusive supply of large volumes of price point titanium powder for use in Titomic’s TKF systems to create new commercial opportunities for titanium in traditional industries in a more efficient and sustainable way for industrial scale manufacturing,” said Jeff Lang, Titomic’s Managing Director.

Headquartered in Xi’An, Lasting Titanium has spent the last two decades supplying titanium products to multiple industries around the world, including aerospace, automotive, defense, medical, and 3D printing. In addition, Lasting Titanium, which has achieved international ISO, AMS, ASTM, and MIL standards across multiple industries, is also involved in research regarding rare metal production, forging, finishing, rolling, smelting, non-destructive testing, and both physical and chemical analyses.

The new partnership between Titomic and Lasting Titanium will, according to a Titomic press release, “enable the cooperative development of new titanium powders for Titomic Kinetic Fusion,” as well as attain an exclusive supply of new price point powders for Titomic’s technology.

Titomic’s unique Kinetic Fusion can be used to manufacture large parts with heat-related distortion or oxidation issues, so there are no size or shape constraints when it comes to the rapid 3D printing of large, complex parts. The process works by spraying titanium powder particles at supersonic speeds of about 1 km per second, using a 6-axis robot arm, onto a scaffold. These particles move so fast that when they collide on the scaffold, they fuse together mechanically to produce huge, load-bearing 3D forms.

The Kinetic Fusion process is also versatile enough to use both spherical and irregular morphology metal powders to 3D print industrial scale metal products, which provides the company with additional opportunities in industries like automotive, marine, building, and oil & gas that previously could not apply titanium due to a lack of economic viability.

L-R: Lasting Titanium’s Gloria Wang, Cai Longyang, Zheng Xiaofeng, and Wang Qi Lu, and Titomic’s Jeff Lang and Vahram Papyan.

Lasting TItanium’s irregular powder morphology is the perfect fit for industrial scale 3D printing with Titomic’s Kinetic Fusion systems. By using this irregular titanium powder, Titomic’s customers will be able to access “a price point alternative” that will go well with the company’s additional range of aerospace-grade and mid-end titanium powders; other 3D printing methods can’t use this price point irregular powder in the same way, which will set Titomic apart in its field.

The new MoU between Lasting Titanium and Titomic will open up new commercial opportunities for 3D printed titanium products over multiple industries, and will specifically create a viable way for Titomic’s Kinetic Fusion systems to compete with traditional methods of manufacturing.

Discuss this news and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the Facebook comments below. 

Titomic Provides A Closer Look at New Metal 3D Printer, and Its Unique Kinetic Fusion 3D Printing Process

Less than a year ago, Australian industrial 3D printing company Titomic introduced its innovative Kinetic Fusion process for the first time. Since then, the company has been busy commercializing the technology with various MOUs and other agreements, and was able to secure patents for Kinetic Fusion in both Australia and the US. All of this activity culminated in May, with news that the company had introduced a new metal 3D printer, said to be the largest and fastest in the world. Now, the world is finally getting a closer look at Titomic’s new machine…and its unique technology.

Jeffrey Lang, the Founding Director and CTO of Titomic, told Manufacturers’ Monthly, “We are challenging the traditional core of manufacturing.

“While most metal printing processes use an electron beam laser to melt the metal, there is no melting involved in our process. Therefore there are no heat-related distortions and the materials retain their properties.

“This also means that we are not limited by size. Because melting metals in the conventional 3D printing processes causes them to oxidise, the conventional metal 3D printing needs to take place inside a vacuum chamber. Lack of melting in our process means that we are not limited by size.”

Titomic’s Kinetic Fusion process involves a 6-axis robot arm spraying titanium powder particles onto a scaffold at supersonic speeds.

Titomic’s new metal 3D printer has a build area that’s 9 m long by 3 m wide and 1.5 m high, though it’s not constrained to booth size and requires no gas shielding. The company’s Kinetic Fusion process sprays titanium powder particles at supersonic speeds of about 1 km per second, using a 6-axis robot arm, onto a scaffold. These particles move so fast that when they collide on the scaffold, they fuse together mechanically to produce huge, load-bearing 3D forms.

Kinetic Fusion is also far faster than other forms of 3D printing.

“Depending on the complexity of the metal parts, we can deposit between 20-45 kilograms of metal per hour. That’s just with one spray head. We are working on a new system where we could operate a series of robots that connect multi- head robots. That would enable us to deposit up to 200 kilograms of material per hour,” Lang said.

“To put that into perspective, the normal 3D printers can usually deposit about one kilogram in 20 hours. So we are really bringing volume into the additive manufacturing market.”

Titomic’s 3D metal printer.

This unique technology resulted from a Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) study, at a time when the country’s government was looking to capitalize on its titanium resources.

“The Federal Government did a IndustryFOCUS including putting linings on jet study in 2007 with this idea that while Australia is not a large resource of titanium, we have a large amount of mineral sands that contain titanium,” Lang explained. “The government wanted to find ways to utilise that resource instead of just selling it off, like we always do in Australia.

“I was invited to be a part of the project and look at the ways by which we could use large volumes of titanium powder. We started thinking about how to develop titanium powder from that vast resource and build a whole industry around it.”

Lang and his colleagues were finding that current AM methods were too restrictive for industrial-scale projects…and then they found the cold spray coatings process, which was developed in Russia 30 years ago for high-level metal coatings for aerospace engines; the method was also used in Asia to fabricate high-quality frying pans with copper-coated bases and scratch-proof rice cookers.

Lang said, “What no one had realised was the potential applications of the process in additive manufacturing.

“We haven’t found any scientists who can clearly explain the theory behind the process, but the technique is currently being reviewed at the army labs in the USA. The US Army has already validated the process for doing aluminium repairs on aircraft wings, etc. There are also a couple of big global companies using the technology for defence applications.”

Titomic founding director and CTO, Jeffrey Lang, and Titomic chairman, Philip Vafiadis, at the launch of Titomic’s 3D metal printer in Melbourne.

Together with Professor Richard Fox, Lang began working on how to build a 3D object by incorporating cold spray onto a scaffold, and the two co-inventors asked that CSIRO patent and licence the innovative technology to Force Industries, its composite sporting goods company. Thus, Titomic was founded four years ago and owns the exclusive rights to commercialize the proprietary process.

“These are exciting times. We started the whole project with the view of developing sovereign capabilities for Australia,” Lang said. “But the technology does not benefit just one country. It’s about securing a better future for all humanity and future generations on this planet.”

The technology does need to go through a validation process before being used in industries like aerospace, but the company is also working to 3D print parts for other industries, like defence, sports equipment, mining, and shipbuilding.

“The shipbuilding industry is currently using 50-year old technologies. Nothing much has changed in that area over the past years,” Lang explained. “Our machine can be installed on a gantry system to coat the whole hull of the ship. That shows the significant scale of what we can do.”

The technology is also not strictly limited to 3D printing and could be used to create advanced composite materials by fusing together dissimilar materials, or in the seamless coating of large industrial parts.

“Probably the most exciting advantage of Titomic Kinetic Fusion process is that it enables us to fuse dissimilar materials that could not be fused in any other way,” said Lang. “This puts us at the forefront of pioneering new smart materials that can be specifically designed for different components and parts.”

Lang believes that early adopters in any industry, but especially aerospace, can save on time and material waste with its Kinetic Fusion, in addition to gaining a competitive advantage. The aviation sector is one of the largest customers of titanium alloy products, and according to Lang, Airbus, one of the bigger fans of 3D printing in the industry, loses 50 tons of raw titanium each day to produce only 8 tons of traditionally manufactured parts…a materials loss of about 90%.

“If we could make those parts as near net shape components, that is to create the final shape of the part and then add just a little bit extra burden of the material on it, we could reduce that machining time in some instances by 80 per cent,” Lang said.

“We are not saying this technology can jumpstart now and replace the current aerospace process. But our process is currently one of the most significant processes that those aerospace companies are looking at. We have come up with additional solutions to remove a small amount of porosity to achieve aerospace grade.

“For one of the aerospace components, which can be up to $4 million in cost, we can reduce production time from 200 hours down to 6 hours.”

That’s why Titomic is currently working with a few Tier 1 aerospace companies that are interested in developing carbon fiber parts with a middle structure made of titanium.

However, Lang also says that, while 3D printing titanium is useful for making complex parts, the price will eventually start to go up and match conventional methods of manufacturing.

“The nitrogen and electricity costs for running the machines are not very high,” Lang said. “Our biggest cost restriction at the moment is the cost of metal powders. Titanium powder can be prohibitive for high volume, low value industries.”

But, as we continue to develop more applications for titanium and the demand increases, he believes the cost will go back down.

“When you look back at 150 years ago, the most expensive material in the world was aluminium. And that is now only $2-3 per kilogram,” said Lang. “Things change based on demand. The demand for titanium powder in Australia hasn’t been great until Titomic came along. Now we are in the position where we are securing the supply chain from larger suppliers.”

Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below.