BAE Systems has been using additive manufacturing technology for two decades, but they’ve recently ramped up their 3D printing efforts significantly. In 2016, BAE Systems 3D printed more than 2,500 components, a 20% increase over the previous year. According to the company, they’ve been printing aircraft parts out of titanium and nylon, using selective laser melting (SLM) and selective laser sintering (SLS), respectively.
The NPPDC isn’t just an additive manufacturing center, though – it also features a virtual reality suite where engineers can virtually test and assess parts before prototyping and fabricating them.
“We’ve got a ramping F-35 programme that demands a drum beat manufacturing system be put in place. We’ve also got… Typhoons moving into the export marketplace, and it’s about how do we respond to the challenges of those programmes,” said John Dunston, head of the NPPDC at BAE Systems. “Our raison d’être really is to establish a productionised suite of processes that we can then either deploy to a programme or run as a shared service within the facility, or…look at how we can support the industrialisation activities and potentially deploy solutions in Coventry in support of [land system] programmes.”
Meanwhile, St. Louis-based Emerson just opened an advanced additive manufacturing center at their Singapore location – the company’s second location to have additive manufacturing capabilities. Emerson, a global technology and engineering company, launched their additive manufacturing business three years ago with the opening of their first AM center in Marshalltown, Iowa. The two centers will both work on research and development and pilot production services for all of the company’s businesses around the world.
“This Singapore center, along with our Marshalltown center, will play a key role in helping Emerson move quickly to leverage the benefits of additive manufacturing to meet our customers’ needs in Asia Pacific and around the world,” said David Farr, chairman and CEO of Emerson. “We greatly appreciate the support of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), which has been a great partner and gave us the confidence to make the investment here.”
In conjunction with the opening of their new additive manufacturing center, Emerson has also partnered with NTU for a five-year research collaboration. Under the terms of the agreement, postgraduate students from the university will be able to get real-world, hands-on training at the new center while helping the company carry out product research.
“We are pleased to partner with Emerson in the opening of its new additive manufacturing center, which will help enhance Singapore’s standing as an internationally recognized hub for high-tech manufacturing excellence,” said Lim Kok Kiang, assistant managing director of the Singapore Economic Development Board. “This global center will not only raise our international competitiveness, but also contribute towards the grooming of skilled Singaporean talent in the area of advanced manufacturing.”
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