Airtech: Growth of LFAM for Tooling Applications with Validated Material Developments

Traditional tooling methods used in aerospace can be costly and time consuming which slows the rapid development that is being required in the industry. Tools that traditionally take 8-12 weeks can be built with additive manufacturing in as little as 3-4 weeks, which includes design, and any finishing work. With this rapid increase in possible throughput, layup molds and subsequent tools like trim tools or holding fixtures may be produced in less time than a traditional layup mold alone.

Airtech has been extensively testing and validating their materials in use, showing that the materials are more than capable of meeting the demand for production tooling. LFAM tools printed with our Dahltram® resin systems can not only achieve high accuracy, vacuum integrity, and rigors of production use, but can also hold up under extended use in the autoclave. Airtech is also developing out of the autoclave (OoA) solutions, Heat-Tech®, with integrally heated tools that can both be used in the oven or out of the oven. These OoA tooling solutions allow the industry to still utilize the speed of LFAM and helps keep capital investments down.
A further benefit of the Dahltram® resin systems is their ease of recyclability. Thermoplastic based tooling solutions can easily be recycled once a tool has reached its end of life. This drastically reduces the carbon footprint, helping manufactures meet key future goals.

During the webinar, your will learn more on:
• The opportunities and benefits presented by Large Format Additive Manufacturing for tooling applications
• The challenges faced and advances in materials and printing already to enable LFAM Tooling today
• The barriers already overcome to validate LFAM tooling solution for real world applications
• What’s coming soon to further advanced the technology
• How to further reduce carbon footprint by recycling tooling solutions once they reach their end of life

Speakers

Zachary SKELTON, Sr. Technical Support Engineer, Airtech Advanced Materials Group