Additive manufacturing is making serious inroads for MRO applications, but challenges may slow its adoption for some uses.
Aviation is a necessarily cautious industry, where new technologies are adopted only after exhaustive testing and certification processes. As such, additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, is still in its infancy across the airframe and engine supply chains.
South Carolina-based 3D Systems, which produces additive manufacturing (AM) machines, manufactures only 12 such parts in current-production engines, and fewer than 1,000 on Boeing and Airbus aircraft. In comparison, the company prints more than 500,000 metal parts for other industries each year.