Typically at this time of year, as the aerospace industry prepares for its biggest shows in Paris and Farnsborough, 3dpbm zooms in on the latest developments of AM in the aerospace segment. This year, while we don’t have any major aerospace events to report on, we are taking this opportunity to collect and present valuable insights about the segment and highlight key initiatives in our Aerospace AM Focus 2021 eBook. Despite the ongoing pandemic and its lingering effects on the aerospace industry, we are beginning to see signs of recovery, and aviation players are demonstrating how the implementation of AM is helping to streamline production and ensure supply chain resiliency.
This time last year, much of the world was experiencing the height of the pandemic crisis and aviation was among the worst hit segments. We thus focused our ebook on the new era of aviation and aerial mobility, with growth private jets and helicopters, drones, eVTOLs and the space industry emerging as concrete global businesses.
This year, the entire aerospace industry is starting to bounce back and, while getting back to pre-pandemic levels of air travel will take a while longer, airlines and aircraft OEMs are already looking to leverage AM to capitalize on upcoming business opportunities. One of the most striking examples is United purchasing 35 (potentially 50) supersonic airlines from Boom Supersonic, one of the biggest users of AM for tooling and final parts.
To offer a view of where these opportunities might arise, we leveraged our 3dpbm global Index of AM companies, the largest and most complete in the world, to provide the first-ever geographic analysis of AM adoption in aerospace. Many interesting elements came into view, from France’s Aerospace Valley (where Safran is opening a large AM Campus as we write), to California’s new Space Beach (where Launcher, Virgin and Relativity conduct many of their state of the art AM activities for space-bound vehicles and applications), to China’s rapidly growing space program.
We also present an updated map of the most active AM companies—including AM hardware, materials and service providers— in aerospace today. Companies like Stratasys, EOS and Materialise along with some of the most interesting and innovative operators. To bring you the very latest on what is possible in aerospace AM today we focused on two companies in particular, CRP Technology (and its unique Windform materials for laser PBF processes), which leverages composite materials to the fullest for the production of optimized small satellite parts, and Caracol AM, which utilizes large-scale AM for aerospace tooling and satellite components. Finally, we present an overview of how AM is now being used to serially manufacture an increasing number of drone final parts in what is one of the most rapidly growing segments of the aerospace sector today.
3dpbm’s eBook can be viewed by scrolling through the document above or downloaded for viewing on your favorite mobile device. In our effort to maintain an open discourse and open access to AM news, the publication is free to access. We at 3dpbm have been ardently following the progress of Aerospace AM for years, and we are pleased to put the industry in the spotlight in a new, reader-friendly way!
You can find some of our recent eBook editions below:
- Sustainability AM Focus 2021 eBook
- Composites AM Focus 2021 eBook
- Consumer AM Focus 2021 eBook
- Medical AM Focus 2021 eBook
- Automotive AM Focus 2021 eBook
- AM Trends 2021 Focus eBook
All editions can be found here.
Interested in being featured in a future AM Focus 2021 eBook? Get in touch to discuss collaboration opportunities.
