At last month’s Paris Air Show, Stratasys made an important announcement indicating that 3Dprinting polymers were just about ready for prime time.
With the release of a new configuration of a Fortus 900 3D printer and its ULTEM 9085 thermoplastic, fused deposition modeling (FDM) may now be capable of repeatable reliability to the extent that it can be qualified for production parts for use in aircraft.
Now, further news from Stratasys Direct Manufacturing, the company’s 3D printing and advanced manufacturing service provider, shows that FDM is ready for a big aerospace customer: Airbus. Airbus has selected Stratasys Direct Manufacturing to produce 3D-printed plastic parts for use on the A350 XWB aircraft.
This is not the first time that Stratasys and Airbus have worked together. In fact, Airbus and Stratasys have been collaborating since 2013.
As Scott Sevcik, head of aerospace, defense and automotive at Stratasys, explained to ENGINEERING.com, “Over the past several years, we’ve been announcing various steps in our collaboration with Airbus around their use of our technology. In 2015, we announced that they had printed parts for the A350 and certified the process as part of their certification. Last year, we announced that they had standardized the technology and were flowing the process down into their supply chain.”
Read more at ENGINEERING.com
