GKN Aerospace, Oak Ridge National Laboratory partner on AM technology

GKN Aerospace has signed a five-year agreement with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to used additive manufacturing (AM) to develop large titanium parts for aerospace applications.

GKN Aerospace’s AM process, Laser Metal Deposition with wire (LMD-w), combines metal wire feedstock with a laser, mounted to a robotic arm. The process, developed at the company’s AM center in St. Louis, is suitable for the production of very large titanium components for aircraft because it is not constrained to a controlled-atmosphere build chamber. However, the robotic arm limits the process’s ability to product complex geometries.

With this partnership with ORNL, GKN Aerospace plans to incorporate its own structural 3-D printed parts into aircraft.