Aerospace & Defense

Advanced flight platforms are placing pressure on aerospace companies to adopt rapid manufacturing technologies that accelerate the supply chain and encourage innovation at every level, including product development, inspection and MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul). At the same time, there's a growing need to lower fuel costs and efficiently replace legacy parts for aging fleets.

Aerospace and defense customers leverage 3D Systems' industry-leading solutions and expertise to deliver unprecedented productivity in areas such as increasing speed and reliability of quality assurance and validation processes, lowering fuel costs through lightweighting and parts consolidation, and increasing manufacturing productivity through innovative 3D printed casting patterns, 3D data recovery, injection-mold design, and direct metal printing of airworthy parts.

The Challenge

Optimizing Parts and Assemblies to Revolutionize Space Exploration

Low-cost robotic space exploration requires throwing away the book on many traditional processes, starting with design and manufacturing.

The Solution

Planetary Resources Uses QuickCast to Achieve New Level of Design Freedom

Patented 3D Systems technologies deliver lighter-weight parts, quicker design iterations, and cost savings from consolidating assemblies into one casted part.

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The Challenge

Creating One-of-a-Kind Parts for the Mars Exploration Rover

Parts and assemblies for the Rover, some machined from solid titanium, contain complex angles and undercut walls, some with thicknesses as small as 1mm (0.040").

The Solution

Next Intent Uses GibbsCAM to Meet Tight Requirements

The successful Mars Rover mission underlines Next Intent's use of GibbsCAM software to keep material as thin as possible without affecting the structural integrity of parts.

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The Challenge

Produce Lighter-Weight Brackets for Telecommunications Satellite

Each bracket mounted on the antenna required a unique topologically optimized design for lower weight without sacrificing strength.

The Solution

Thales Alenia and 3D Systems Use DMP for Better Bracket

Direct-metal-printed brackets are 25-percent lighter, have a better stiffness-to-weight ratio, and can be manufactured in half the time it would take with a traditional process.

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The Challenge

Reconnecting Design With As-Built for NASA's Apollo F-1 Rocket Engine

Although some blueprints of the original F-1 engine design exist, the basic drawings that were available revealed a disconnect between the original design and as-built results.

The Solution

ShapeFidelity Uses Geomagic Software to Accurately Reverse Engineer the F-1

An accurate 3D model of the F-1 engine can now be used for analysis, flow path definition, clearances, and re-creation and manufacturing of the original parts using new materials.

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Explore Our Applications

Casting

Accelerate the delivery of high quality metal products and accurate casting patterns with greater material efficiency with 3D printed wax and SLA casting patterns

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Shop Floor

Empower your manufacturing team by adding 3D Systems end-to-end manufacturing solutions to the shop floor to drive efficiency, productivity and better time-to-market

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Assembly Processes

3D Systems’ solutions evolve assembly processes through consolidated assemblies to deliver increased productivity, reduced assembly checks, reduce product weight and improved product lifespans

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Scan to CAD

Lost or missing design plans are a thing of the past. The ability to reverse engineer parts with 3D Systems’ scan-to-CAD workflow means you always have CAD data available.

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Jigs & Fixtures

Produce optimized jigs and fixtures at lower costs. 3D Systems’ solutions offer flexible, fast turnaround manufacturing to speed up processes while improving quality.

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