Faster, Lower-Cost Aerospace Duct Production with FDM Additive Manufacturing
Boom Supersonic demonstrates how FDM® additive manufacturing can help aerospace engineering teams produce test components faster while reducing material costs and manufacturing constraints.
As the developer of XB-1, a one-third scale demonstrator supporting the development of its Overture supersonic airliner, Boom required bleed air ducts for backpressure testing of the XB-1’s J85 engines. While these ducts were not flight hardware, they were critical for supplying engineers with the test data needed during development.
Traditional fabrication involved machining the ducts from aluminium bar stock, resulting in a seven-week lead time, significant material waste, and higher material costs. Boom turned to additive manufacturing using heat-resistant ULTEM™ 1010 resin, allowing the ducts to be produced without machining queues, extensive material removal, or conventional design-for-manufacturability constraints.
The result was a faster and more cost-effective approach to producing aerospace test components, while giving engineers greater freedom to optimise the duct design.
In this case study, you'll learn:
- Accelerated component production: How FDM additive manufacturing reduced bleed air duct fabrication from seven weeks to just 14 hours.
- Material and cost efficiency: How additive manufacturing reduced material usage and lowered the total production cost from $9,000 to $150.
- Greater design freedom: How AM removed machining-related design-for-manufacturability constraints, giving engineers greater flexibility to develop the optimal duct design.
- Faster engineering validation: How rapid production of test components helped support the XB-1 development and testing process.
Who is it for?
- Aerospace OEMs
- Aerospace Engineering Teams
- Aircraft & Spacecraft Manufacturers
- R&D and Innovation Teams
- MRO Engineering Teams
- Aerospace Component Designers
To learn more about aerospace additive manufacturing, FDM technology, and application-focused 3D printing solutions, connect with Creatz3D or explore our case studies for real-world aerospace applications.
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