CARIC MANU-710: Aerospace Additive Manufacturing Initiative

Bell Helicopter Textron Canada Limited and Pratt & Whitney Canada have all initiated research projects on Additive Manufacturing (AM) processes. Although applications are different, all companies are facing the same challenges, including the lack of a mature Canadian supply chain. The purpose of the current project is to bring together the whole value chain (Certification authorities, OEMs, Suppliers, Universities & Research Centers) to collaborate on common tasks for the development of the capability to design, produce, inspect and certify parts using AM processes. The end goal is to reach TRL/MRL 6 on selected parts for primary and secondary helicopter structures as well as aircraft engines and pave the way for usage in the production of parts for repair, retrofit or new products development. The expected benefits are: CO2 emissions reduction via weight reduction and cost
reduction through part assemblies integration, lead time reduction, reduced buy-to-fly ratio, reduced inventory and optimized batch size.

Faculty Supervisor:

Souheil-Antoine Tahan

Student:

Ali Aidibe

Partner:

Pratt & Whitney Canada

Discipline:

Engineering - mechanical

Sector:

Information and communications technologies

University:

Program: