Leading aerospace companies including Airbus and Safran Landing Systems are working with a consortium led by the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS) on a new project aiming to offer a major sustainability boost, along with cost and lead time savings, across critical component manufacturing through a combination of forging, forming and additive manufacturing.
Funded by the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI), and supported by the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, the ‘Hybrid Direct Energy Deposition (DED) Sprint’ project partners include NMIS Digital Factory, Cranfield University and the Northern Ireland Technology Centre (NITC), which is based at Queen’s University Belfast, along with an industry steering group of 13 companies.
The group is working to devise a new Hybrid DED process that will help overcome current challenges that manufacturers face in relation to the expensive and time-consuming process of manufacturing critical components required to operate under harsh environments.