Sciaky Inc., Chicago, announces that it has entered into a research and development initiative to couple high-powered closed-die forging with Sciaky’s electron beam additive manufacturing (EBAM) to develop new processes for producing titanium alloy aircraft parts.
Sciaky will partner with Aubert & Duval and Airbus, driven by the Saint Exupéry Institute for Research in Technology (IRT). The Production Engineering laboratory of the National School of Engineering in Tarbes, France, will serve as an academic partner for this project, also known as the Metallic Advanced Materials for Aeronautics (MAMA) project.
In this first phase, the project has a global funding of just under $4.8 million, of which 50% is supported by the French State as part of the “Investing in the Future” program (PIA – Programme Investissement d’Avenir). The other 50% is funded by its industrial partners.
As the most widely scalable metal additive manufacturing solution in the industry (in terms of work envelope), Sciaky’s EBAM systems can produce parts ranging from 8 inches to 19 feet in length. EBAM is also the fastest deposition process in the metal additive manufacturing market, with gross deposition rates up to 25 pounds of metal per hour.
EBAM brings quality and control together with IRISS – the Interlayer Real-time Imaging and Sensing System, which is the only real-time adaptive control system in the metal 3D printing market that can sense and digitally self-adjust metal deposition with precision and repeatability. This innovative closed-loop control is the primary reason that Sciaky’s EBAM 3D printing process delivers consistent part geometry, mechanical properties, microstructure, and metal chemistry, from the first part to the last.
Aubert & Duval, a subsidiary of the Alloys division of the Eramet group, is a metallurgy expert company and one of the world leaders in high-performance steels, superalloys, titanium, and aluminum. Aubert & Duval designs and develops advanced metallurgical solutions in the form of closed-die-forged and forged parts, long products, and metal powders for projects in the most demanding industries: aeronautics, energy, defense, nuclear, and medical.
The Technological Research Institute (IRT) Saint Exupéry, is an accelerator of science, technological research, and tech transfer to the aeronautics, space, and embedded systems industries for the development of innovative solutions that are safe, robust, certifiable, and sustainable.
www.aubertduval.com
