Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 2

Aeronautic parts with varying section thicknesses require extensive machining to produce and more often than not, this is done using high value materials. This leads to high part production costs which in their final shape would require significantly less material (high buy-to-fly ratio). Additive manufacturing (AM) brings new opportunities in design and manufacturing. One such opportunity comes from AM processes that can add material on existing parts such as directed energy deposition, welding, thermal projection and brazing. For example, those processes allow the addition of metal on thin parts where thicker sections are required; therefore significantly reducing the amount of material required (thus decreasing the buy-to-fly ratio). Multiple concerns arise from those processes regarding the production of aeronautic critical parts, such as the mechanical properties of the bond, distortion and residual stress induced in the parts. From the technical and commercial points of view, the ability to add metal or modify sections of existing parts brings the possibility to significantly reduce the amount of material machined, therefore decreasing the buy-to-fly ratio, which is a constant objective in the aeronautic field where high value materials are used, particularly for titanium (Ti-6Al-4V) and nickel (Inconel 625) alloys. The purpose of this project is thus to evaluate the effects of the different additive manufacturing deposition technologies on the integrity of the bonds created, the distortion and the residual stresses induced by the thermal processes and to compare those characteristics to the economics of the process. This will provide the industrial partners list of selection criteria when selecting which additive manufacturing assembly process to use.