BigRep 3D printing to be leveraged by Etihad for aerospace parts.
Berlin-based large-format 3D printer manufacturer, BigRep has announced plans with Etihad Airways Engineering to collaborate on the development of next generation additive manufacturing solutions for the aerospace industry.
The plan is to apply 3D printing to the production of novel cabin parts and concepts for both new aircraft and the retrofit installations.
Berhard Randerath, Vice President Engineering, Design & Innovation at Etihad Airways Engineering, commented: "Etihad Airways Engineering and BigRep share a vision to bring the 3D-printed cabin into production, together with our partners. Our goal is to enable 3D-printing technologies for cabin parts - be it on new aircraft programmes or for retrofit installations - to serve our airline customers with innovative and smart solutions."
Stephan Beyer, CEO (interim) & CFO of BigRep GmbH, said: "We believe that Etihad Airways Engineering, with its expertise, is the perfect fit to cooperatively shape the industrialisation of AM for the aviation industry. We believe that we offer the best additive manufacturing solutions today with our BigRep equipment, but to unfold the full potential of our technology for the aerospace sector, we have to jointly certify new aviation materials and establish specific AM design and engineering guidelines in parallel."
BigRep and Etihad are calling for a wider spectrum of high-performance AM-suitable polymer materials that can pass the aerospace certification process. To combat this, the partners have agreed to jointly develop and test new material grades in accordance with EASA and FAA criteria.
BigRep launched its BigRep ONE machine over three years ago and has since provided large-scale 3D printing technologies to a range of industries and customers including German railway company, Deutsche Bahn which has been printing thousands of parts for its fleet of trains since 2015 using both BigRep and other polymer and metal processes.
