EOS and Realizing Flight-Ready Polymer Sintered Parts Eligible for Airbus



Materialize (Nasdaq: MTLS) has 12 fire retardant polyamide materials EOS PA 2241 FR that I s eligible for Airbus. From now on, under Airbus AIPS Process Specification 03-07-022, Airbus or its suppliers can order parts in this material from Materialise, making the service bureau the first qualified for sintered flight parts for Airbus. Previously Materialize ULTEM 9085 SABIC materials were eligible, too, for material extrusion.

"This achievement consolidates our long-term partnership with Airbus, and also opens up additional 3D printing applications for Airbus and its suppliers. Laser sintering is one of the most widely used 3D printing technologies and allows complex design features such as interlocking mechanisms. It is an honor for Materialize to be Airbus's first manufacturer of this technology," said Bart Van der Schueren, CTO of Materialize.

Now, for powder bed fusion (PBF), Materialize can produce parts for the Airbus ecosystem on printers such as The EOS P770 Very large . The PA 2241 FR is also much more economical than other materials that allow it to fly, as it has a relatively high refresh rate. If you are going to do sinter PEEK or ULTEM , for example, you should throw away all the unsintered powders, which are already more expensive than PA 12 FR powder. This makes sintering components for in the cabin, in the kitchen, and on board accessible.

What's more, ultems don't match jet fuel, so this could also open up more possibilities in this area. For some uses, PA 12 releases too much gas and is good news for the material (and its manufacturer, which in the end may be Evonik ) that are eligible for use on commercial flights. The same certification also introduces the possibility of aircraft cabin components for business jets and general aviation applications, which will open up new markets for Materialise.

As described in the report " Polymer Additive Manufacturing Market and Application: 2020-2029 " from SmarTech Analysis, in-cab components are becoming an increasingly attractive application for 3D printing in space. While material extrusion accounts for the bulk of hardware revenue for aerospace, PBF is expected to follow by the end of this decade, with PBF hardware sales projected to reach $270 million in revenue by 2029.

"We are very proud that after an extensive testing program, Airbus is eligible for the EOS PA 2241 FR materials and processes for global use by the company. This underlines the high maturity and constant quality of eos powders and systems and continues to emphasize the relevance of industrial 3D printing in both polymers and metals," said Markus Glasser, EMEA Senior Vice President for EOS.

Materialize notes that 3D prints around 100 individual part numbers for Airbus A350 , which adds up to about 26,000 per year for different A350 aircraft alone. However, the Belgian 3D printing bureau did not stop there. It aims to print 3D components for Airbus aircraft such as the A320, A330 and A340.

This is a remarkable achievement and tens of thousands of hours of work have been spent making this achievement a realization. The amount of work you have to do to fly new qualified processes and materials is astounding. The number of testing, validation, and process controls a person must have is also huge. This is a great achievement for Materialise. Doing the job on the A350 has been outstanding, but with qualifications across Airbus, means their services can now be used in helicopters and many other products that AIrbus makes.

 

 

Business results should be encouraging for publicly traded Belgian companies. At the same time, this kind of thing is also a quality marker for others in 3D printing or looking for a 3D printing service. One could easily say to oneself, "If Materialize can do this for Airbus, they can also make my parts."

If you want to know what a vision is, know this: when I worked at Materialize more than a decade ago, people were trying to makeintered parts for flight applications. Tenacity is a quality overlooked in the company. It's not like it's normal for me to be so lyrically positive, but it's a great move for our industry and we have to commend Materialize for making this possible.

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