Ingersoll MasterPrint 3D printer manufactures 22ft long vacuum trim tool to produce main rotor blade components.
Ingersoll Machine Tools Inc. and Bell Textron Inc. have collaborated using a large format 3D printer to successfully manufacture a 22ft long vacuum trim tool for producing main rotor blade components.
The effort used Ingersoll’s hybrid large format MasterPrint gantry type 3D printer and 5-axis milling machine housed at Ingersoll’s headquarters facility in Rockford, Illinois.
“We are continuously testing and advancing MasterPrint in our Development Center” said Chip Storie, CEO at Ingersoll “Among Ingersoll’s short-term objectives is for MasterPrint to 3D-print molds for aerospace that preserve the geometrical properties and tolerances, vacuum integrity, and autoclave resilience normally obtained with traditional technology, but with the cost and time reduction only additive manufacturing can offer. The relentless progress our MasterPrint process has made in 2020 has finally made this target attainable”.
This production tooling effort 3D printed 1,150 lb of ABS material with 20% chopped carbon fiber fill. The printing process was completed as a single part in a continuous 75-hour operation. After printing, the mold surfaces and tooling location features were machined to finished dimensions by exchanging the print module for the 5-axis milling head which is changeable on the MasterPrint machine. The machining was completed in one week and the final part achieved full vacuum tightness. The Ingersoll machine uses the Siemens 840D CNC control system for controlling both the machining and the 3D printing.
Critical time savings was achieved through the 3D print fabrication and efficient 5-axis machining operations. The additive and subtractive manufacturing processes were seamlessly co-engineered in the native CAD software format. The traditional build cycle for a typical mold in aluminum such as this using standard methods is typically 4 to 5 months. This manufacturing process was completed in a matter of weeks.
“For many years Bell has utilized composite materials for manufacturing airframe components, including components produced on an Ingersoll Machine Tools Tape Layer machines. These similar materials are now being utilized for manufacturing the molds that form the airframe components.,” says James Cordell, Bell senior manager of process stability. “Utilizing this rapid manufacturing equipment will allow Bell to greatly accelerate our development of tooling for many applications within the Bell organization.”
Ingersoll Machine Tools has played an important role in enabling breakthrough airframe production techniques for major aircraft designs around the world and appreciates the opportunity to support Bell in building their future.
The Ingersoll product lineup includes MasterMill, PowerMill and SuperProfiler for accurate, reliable, high-speed milling and trimming of large, complex-geometry parts made of aluminum, titanium and hard metals; Mongoose and Mongoose Hybrid, for the composite manufacturing of aircraft, rocket, and vessel structures; MasterPrint, the largest existing thermoplastic 3D printer, capable to produce extra-large, hollow, parts in a single piece for the aerospace and the marine sectors. Ingersoll runs the same machines at its Development Center to manufacture key-components for many aerospace and defense programs. Ingersoll is part of the Camozzi Machine Tools division of the Camozzi Group.
Advanced Cooling Technologies Inc. (ACT) is the prime thermal management supplier for the coronagraph.
Advanced Cooling Technologies Inc. (ACT) of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, has been awarded a contract from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for engineering development and flight hardware manufacturing of Constant Conductance Heat Pipes (CCHPs) and an embedded warm radiator panel, which will fly as part of the coronagraph instrument on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
ACT will be the prime thermal management supplier for the Electronics Heat Transport Subsystem (EHTS); the scope of work includes design, fabrication, and qualification of several external CCHPs and an aluminum-honeycomb embedded CCHP radiator panel. All deliverables will be provided to NASA by March 2022.
As the primary thermal management solutions provider, ACT will leverage its extensive aerospace engineering and aluminum-ammonia heat pipe expertise to qualify and deliver flight article CCHPs and the embedded CCHP radiator. ACT’s ammonia CCHPs have recently exceeded 50 million on-orbit hours and have never recorded an on-orbit failure. The existing robust manufacturing and quality control will be heavily leveraged during the execution of this contract.
“We’re thrilled anytime we have the opportunity to work with NASA JPL, but there is added excitement to support a program as important as the Roman Space Telescope” said Bryan Muzyka, ACT’s sales and marketing manager. “This will give ACT and our supply chain the opportunity to innovate and be a part of a truly special project” added John Hartenstine, ACT vice president of operations.
The Roman Space Telescope is named after Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer, who paved the way for space telescopes focused on the broader universe. She advocated and developed new tools that would allow scientists to study the broader universe from space. According to NASA, the Roman Telescope will achieve some remarkable feats, including:
• The ability to investigate long-standing astronomical mysteries, such as the force behind the universe’s expansion by studying dark energy
• Capabilities to reveal thousands of worlds that are similar to planets in our solar system, by using gravitational effects called microlensing
The Roman Telescope is planned to launch in the mid-2020s and will feature a wide field instrument and coronagraph instrument. The wide field instrument will have a field of view 100x greater than the Hubble infrared instrument, allowing it to capture more of the sky with less observing time. The coronagraph instrument will perform high contrast imaging and spectroscopy of individual nearby exoplanets.
First in U.S. Air Force eSeries aircraft validates digital design and build for advanced trainer.
The first U.S. portion of the T-7A Red Hawk advanced trainer has officially entered the Boeing jet’s state-of-the-art production line.
The training jet, designated the eT-7A Red Hawk by the U.S. Air Force because of its digital heritage, was fully designed using 3D model-based definition and data management systems developed at Boeing during the last two decades. The T-7A Red Hawk employed the digital engineering and design of the Boeing T-X aircraft that went from firm concept to first flight in just 36 months.
“The future of air dominance lies in the ability to move quickly, take smart risks, and partner in new ways to get the job done,” said Shelley Lavender, Boeing senior vice president of Strike, Surveillance, and Mobility. “By creating aircraft and systems along a digital thread, we can accelerate build times and increase quality and affordability for our customers in a way that has never been done before.”
The Advanced Pilot Training System also incorporates leading-edge ground-based live and virtual simulators to give students and instructors a “real as it gets” experience.
In September 2018, the U.S. Air Force awarded Boeing a $9.2 billion contract to supply 351 advanced trainer aircraft and 46 associated ground-based training simulators. Saab is teamed with Boeing on the trainer and provides the aft fuselage of the jet.
“This is a historic moment for the program and industry,” said Chuck Dabundo, Boeing vice president of T-7 programs. “The build process leverages full-size determinant assembly, which allows technicians to build the aircraft with minimal tooling and drilling during the assembly process. The digital process accounts for a 75% increase in first-time quality.”
San Francisco Bay Area facility will provide a variety of aerospace and defense nondestructive testing (NDT) services.
Phoenix LLC plans to construct a second neutron imaging center near the aerospace, defense, and tech hub of the San Francisco Bay Area in northern California to address the regional demand for commercially available neutron radiography services. This announcement follows the success of the company’s first Phoenix Neutron Imaging Center, or PNIC, in Fitchburg, Wisconsin, which opened in the fall of 2019. PNIC is one of the only sites in the world to offer production-scale, high-quality neutron radiography (N-ray), a powerful industrial nondestructive testing method for quality assurance, R&D, and failure analysis. Unlike most other N-ray providers, Phoenix uses proprietary accelerator-based neutron generator technology as the source of neutrons for the N-ray processes.
The planned west-coast neutron imaging facility would provide a variety of key aerospace and defense nondestructive testing (NDT) services including thermal neutron radiography (film and digital), fast neutron radiography, thermal and fast neutron computed tomography (CT), X-ray imaging, X-ray CT, radiation effects testing, and neutron activation analysis.
The facility is expected to further grow Phoenix’s employee base, with future potential to expand beyond a dedicated NDT service center into a regional manufacturing and engineering hub that will attract top talent from the California and West Coast university system to support Phoenix’s growing company charter.
The facility plans to support the growing U.S. space and defense sector by providing critical inspection capabilities to energetic device manufacturers. Energetic devices are crucial for aircraft, spacecraft, and satellites, acting as the catalysts of ejection, payload separation, and explosive signal transfer systems, and so the ability to reliably and nondestructively inspect them using neutron imaging is paramount.
Rather than producing neutron radiation through nuclear fission, which requires fissile material and produces heavy, long-lived radioactive byproducts, Phoenix uses particle accelerators to produce neutron radiation. Phoenix relies on this accelerator-driven method of neutron production to provide fast and thermal neutron imaging, matching reactor-driven neutron imaging facilities for image quality and throughput.
“Placing a new Phoenix neutron imaging center on the West Coast would allow Phoenix to better provide new and existing clients in critical industries access to this important technology that helps ensure their products are free from potentially catastrophic defects, significantly improving the security of a critical defense supply chain,” says Phoenix president Dr. Evan Sengbusch.
Phoenix maintains an ISO 9001:2015 and AS9100 Rev D (2016) certified quality management system as well as NAS-410 certified nondestructive testing personnel.
Seeks proposals for ground and flight demonstrations of integrated megawatt-class powertrain systems for subsonic aircraft.
NASA is seeking proposals for ground and flight demonstrations of integrated megawatt-class powertrain systems for subsonic aircraft. The deadline for proposals for this solicitation is 5 p.m. EST April 20.
The demonstrations will help rapidly mature and transition integrated Electrified Aircraft Propulsion (EAP) technologies and associated EAP vision systems for introduction into the global fleet by 2035. Integrated EAP concepts are rapidly emerging as potentially transformative solutions to significantly improve the environmental sustainability of the next generation of subsonic transport vehicles. EAP electrical systems are being developed to replace or boost fuel-burning aircraft propulsion systems, analogous to how electric or hybrid motors are used in automobiles.
“The release of this request for proposals represents an important next step as NASA partners with industry to further mature critical EAP technologies through demonstrating integrated megawatt-class powertrain systems in flight,” said Lee Noble, NASA’s Integrated Aviation System Program director. “These flight demonstrations have strong applicability to sustainable and highly-efficient aircraft powertrain systems that will facilitate continued U.S. competitiveness for the next generation of commercial transport aircraft.”
Though partnerships with U.S. industry, NASA intends to accelerate integrated megawatt-class powertrain system maturation and transition to the global fleet, as well as identify and address gaps in regulations and standards and acquire necessary ground and flight test data to advance design and modelling tools pertinent to future aircraft products with an EAP system.
NASA and industry studies have shown that EAP concepts can reduce energy use, carbon and nitrogen oxide emissions, and direct operating costs resulting in benefits for both the public and the airline operators. NASA and its industry partners have identified turboprops, regional jets, and single aisle aircraft serving the thin-haul (very short flights), regional, and single-aisle markets as targets of opportunity for this technology.
To turn the promise of EAP benefits into reality, NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate has made a critical commitment to demonstrate practical vehicle-level integration of megawatt-class EAP systems, leveraging advanced airframe systems to reinvigorate the regional and emerging smaller aircraft markets, and to strengthen the single-aisle aircraft market. The Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration project directly supports retaining U.S. leadership in the aerospace manufacturing sector, the largest net-exporter of all U.S. manufacturing sectors.