One of the key technologies to composite manufacturing is quality tooling. In composites, tooling often dictates the cost and schedule of a project. Additive manufacturing has the promise of reducing the cost and the lead time significantly over traditional tooling. There has been a focused evolution in machinery, materials and methods that have resulted in a robust process for quickly making low-cost tools that can the meet the demanding needs of production.

The Aerospace Industry has been working to qualify processes, materials and methods for both production and prototype composite tooling using additive manufacturing. Companies can routinely process a variety of materials from room temperature materials like ABS and Polycarbonate to high temperature materials such as PPS, PSU, PESU and Ultem. Each has its advantages and limitations. Materials with a lower glass transition temperature are easier to print, especially at large scale. Higher temperature materials cool quickly so you need to print fast to make large parts. The latest equipment can print quite large parts out of even high temperature materials like PESU.

Years of research between leading companies, research laboratories and OEMs have continuously yielded new results. See examples of work done by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Airbus, IACMI, Techmer PM, Purdue University and Thermwood Inc. Large Scale Additive composite tooling can have vacuum integrity, low coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and durability.

AM for composite tooling has forged past the challenges and can truly be implemented today for both prototype and production. Composite manufacturers really can implement 3D printed tooling to reduce the cost and lead time of their production.

CONFERENCE SESSIONS