How 3D Printers Will Change for Production: The Cool Parts Show All Access
As Eaton advances toward production of aircraft ducts now made via 3D printed composite instead of metal, a team member involved with this work considers the machine features that will make them more capable for this role.
3D printed aircraft ducts made from carbon fiber-reinforced PEKK are featured in episode #68 of The Cool Parts Show.
Eaton is qualifying this material and the additive manufacturing process in preparation for bringing this method of making aircraft ducts fully into production as an alternative to ducts made of formed aluminum. Si Chen, senior specialist engineer with Eaton and part of the team that has developed this solution, is already seeing some of the improvements to machine and software technology that will make 3D printing even better suited to this application and this role.
