Aerospace & Defense Technology - June 2024 - 10

(Image: Nataliia)
Aitiip Integrates
Freeform Injection Molding
to Lower Weight and
Reduce Production Costs
A
itiip is a leading Spanish research and development
institute and serves companies in the aeronautics,
automation, industrial, and packaging sectors. The
institute possesses strong platforms for the characterization
of materials and processes and is known as a powerful
integrator of technologies, which is constantly on the
lookout for the next transformative technology. A year ago,
Aitiip implemented an NXE 400 industrial resin 3D printer
platform from Nexa3D to explore integrations of additive
manufacturing and injection molding. Nexa3D is the Ventura,
California-based provider of high-speed industrial printing
technologies whose portfolio continues to grow, reflected in its
acquisition of Essentium, one of the world's most well-known
providers of extrusion 3D printing, earlier this year.
Liebherr is one of the world's largest providers of a variety of
industrial goods, services and products. Aerospace and transportation
systems is one of 13 different product segments supplied
by the multinational Liebherr Group. Liebherr-Aerospace &
Transportation, based in Toulouse, France, produces a wide variety
of systems and components for the aerospace industry across
five global locations. The aerospace product segment develops
and manufactures flight control and actuation systems, gearboxes
and travel mechanisms, air management and cooling systems,
as well as electronics among other systems and components.
The aerospace division of Liebherr collaborated with Aitiip
to meet the goal of replacing a metal flange wheel with a flange
wheel made in recycled injection-molded high-performance
polymer. The ambition is to develop a technology that allows
the manufacture of flange wheels for the cooling systems of aeronautics
platforms with 100 percent recyclable materials.
10
Recognizing that the performance of the chosen polymers
would be critical to quality, and that some part features
would be more cost-effective to realize with additive
manufacturing, Aitiip turned to the NXE 400 and Freeform
Injection Molding (FIM) to meet customer expectations.
FIM is a platform developed by the Danish company Addifab.
Put simply, FIM speeds up injection molding by 3D
printing the molds into which the materials are injected.
Why do this if additive manufacturing by itself can be
so fast? The fact remains that injection molding is a very
speedy technology - and an effective one, especially when
it comes to high-volume production. Injection molding is
also compatible with many more materials than can currently
be 3D printed.
Replacing a Metal Flange With Carbon-filled PEEK
Complexity is a cost driver in most manufacturing processes,
and manufacturers have been looking to additive manufacturing
as a way to simplify the manufacturing of complex objects.
In the case of the flange wheel, design complexity challenges
were compounded by the ambition to replace metal with a carbon-filled
PEEK, a high-performance thermoplastic notoriously
difficult to prototype.
In the manufacturing of PEEK parts, process parameters
need to be tightly controlled to achieve target performance,
and Liebherr worked with Aitiip to develop and verify a manufacturing
process that would meet the following requirements:
*
High-speed manufacturing process that will lead to 30 percent
cost reductions
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Aerospace & Defense Technology, June 2024
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Aerospace & Defense Technology - June 2024

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