Optomec, Albuquerque, N.M., announced the delivery of a multifunctional additive manufacturing (AM) machine to a leading supplier to the $37 billion worldwide aviation engine maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) market.
The user is an existing customer with more than 5 Optomec metal additive systems used in production to repair a range of turbine components from aircraft engines and industrial gas turbines. The new machine combines two turbine repair process operations typically performed manually, not only reducing the cost of engine overhauls, but also improving the quality and consistency of these flight-critical procedures.
Optomec’s proprietary process uses a combination of advanced machine vision, adaptive software, on-the-fly laser power adjustment, and automation to precisely add metal to worn engine components, restoring them to the geometric specifications set by the original turbine engine manufacturers.
Optomec’s metal additive repair solutions are the gold standard in the gas turbine industry and are currently used in high volume production in approximately 100 MRO installations worldwide. A single machine has the capacity to repair 10,000s of turbine blades annually, and together Optomec users having performed production repairs on more than 10 million components over time. The global fleet of 25,000 commercial aircraft and 50,000 military aircraft have a time between overhaul mandated around 5000 flight hours, creating a large and growing demand for automated repair equipment. Optomec AM systems are currently certified for aviation repair in 15 countries.
Optomec’s metal additive manufacturing machines use the directed energy deposition (DED) process to build 3D metal parts by deposing powdered metal into a precisely controlled pool of melted metal. Fiberoptic lasers supply the thermal power while advanced motion control systems produce the required geometries for the parts. Optomec leads the DED market with more than 200 DED machines in use.
Image – Gas engine undergoing overhaul at an MRO facility
For more information:
Optomec
www.optomec.com
