Actual Distributed Production - AM Part Qual in Aviation, Part 2
30+ years into the growth of additive manufacturing, and that concept has seemingly continued to be nothing more than hype. The reason? As discussed in part 1, aviation parts need to meet a high standard of quality in order to be trusted. Even parts that aren’t safety critical need to meet airworthiness standards. So, yes, you can print a part anywhere, but how will you certify its airworthiness such that you can install it on an aircraft?
The leading aircraft OEMs have also led the adoption of additive manufacturing in aviation. They’ve invested in qualification programs that have resulted in material and process specifications that they rely on for in-house fabrication or they flow them down to suppliers, who must then demonstrate rigorous compliance to those specifications. To do this efficiently, the OEMs (or their suppliers) are often qualifying a centralized location with only one or a small number of 3d printers to comply with the OEM specification. This is fine for OEM production. It’s efficient. It mirrors an existing, trusted supply chain methodology. The owner of the specification minimizes their risk in this approach.
But this is the opposite of distributed production and, as noted in part 1, this does little to nothing to help Airlines/Operators and MROs, where the promise of distributed production has the most potential impact.
Rather than a centralized location, production centers need to be distributed globally. They especially need to be present in regional hubs for aircraft maintenance like Hamburg, Dubai, and Singapore. This, however, represents a significant scaling problem for the OEM-led specification approach. If each and every distributed manufacturing site needs to be certified and audited by multiple OEMs on multiple specifications, the effort is overwhelming. It’s suboptimal. How can we do both? How can we achieve distributed production while still satisfying airworthiness certification requirements? If you read part 1, you already know the answer - the FORM1, install ready, approach. The innovation here is that instead of centralizing production to utilize multiple specifications in one place, we turn that on its side and centralize certification authority to utilize multiple production sites in many places.
I’ll talk in specifics with AM Craft - Aviation Additive Manufacturing Services as a prime example. AM Craft, having achieved an EASA 21G certification as a Production Organization, centralizes certification. AM Craft’s headquarters facility in Riga, Latvia has demonstrated the quality management and controls necessary, as well as the rigorous process controls to execute production with Stratasys FDM technology for production of aircraft interior components. They are audited regularly and any changes to processes or technologies would require recertification. They have demonstrated to the local airworthiness authority and EASA that they are equipped to carry the authority to declare a part they manufacture airworthy and issue the FORM1 certificate permitting that part to be installed on an aircraft.
Okay, but that’s still a single location, right? It was, but after receiving their EASA 21G Production Organization Approval, AM Craft demonstrated the concept of an extended workshop. They extended their POA to a facility on a different continent. AM Craft is fully responsible for certified aviation part production at Paradigm 3D in Dubai. Airworthiness auditors have traveled from Latvia to the UAE in order to approve AM Craft’s extended workshop. As a result, the first leg of the distributed production network is certified. An Airline working with AM Craft can now have the exact same parts produced under the same POA in two locations 4,000 km apart. In addition, by partnering with Additive Flight Solutions Pte Ltd, who hold their own POA in Singapore, the AM Craft Group of certified production sites continues to grow. We now have the foundation for the distributed manufacturing network of airworthiness certified parts, and it can extend anywhere in the world through further extended workshops or partnerships with other local POA holders.
This is revolutionary for Airlines and MROs being able to finally realize the value of additive manufacturing. The relevant technologies have been proven by the OEMs, and AM Craft has demonstrated that the extended workshop approach has the ability to distribute production of FORM1 parts.
Great for Airlines and MROs, but could an OEM also benefit from the approach? Yes, provided that an OEM is willing to accept a FORM1 part. This is especially good for small and mid-size OEMs that have not been able to invest in developing their own additive manufacturing specifications. Now they don’t have to. They can utilize AM Craft’s processes, and in doing so, they gain access to a distributed production network. For a larger OEM that has made an investment in qualification, this can be a more difficult choice as it foregoes the investment they made. Hopefully, they will recognize their efforts were valuable, but represent a sunk cost. To move forward with the benefits of a distributed network, the better return on future investment is to utilize the Form 1 approach.
So the bottom line is… try.
AM Craft - Aviation Additive Manufacturing Services and our partners are standing by. I'm certain you are having issues sourcing certain parts for minor modification or designing a replacement part. Let us work with you to tackle a challenge on a minor modification or refurb, or to a address a problem part that is frequently being replaced. See how we’re able to simplify the process of bringing the value of AM to your program. Then, once you see our capability to deliver install ready parts, test the network approach. Are you running a refurb program with aircraft in Hamburg, Dubai, and Singapore? Get the same exact part delivered in all three location with no shipping lead time or customs duties. This has long been the promise of AM, and for polymer parts in aviation, it is now the reality.
About the Author
Scott Sevcik leads Strategy and Business Development for AM Craft. Scott’s background spans the aerospace and additive manufacturing industries, with roles in Engineering and Program Management at Lockheed Martin and (what is now) Collins Aerospace, and Product and Aerospace leadership at Stratasys. Products Scott has helped develop or deliver are flying in orbit and on nearly every modern commercial and business aircraft. Many of those parts are 3D printed, owing to Scott’s role at Stratasys, where he helped establish FDM as an aerospace manufacturing technology. Scott holds an MBA and an MS in Aerospace Engineering from San Jose State University and a BS in Aerospace Engineering from Iowa State University.