Photo By Kelly White | An avionics panel L-bracket for the B-1B Lancer is the first metal 3D-printed part to...... read more read more
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In a major first for Tinker Air Force Base’s additive manufacturing capabilities, the Reverse Engineering and Critical Tooling Lab printed an avionics bracket for a B-1B Lancer that is the first metal additive manufactured part printed by REACT to be on a flying aircraft.
Not only was production of the part a major step forward for the lab in terms of additive manufacturing capability, it also successfully saved $22,000 in production costs and dramatically reduced the time needed to acquire the part during the usual acquisition process, according to Jason McCurry, 76th Composite Maintenance Group lead engineer in the additive manufacturing cell at REACT.
“The future implications of this is that we’ll start to see more parts like this coming from the different [system program offices],” McCurry said. “You’ll start to see the proliferation of metal parts not only here at Tinker but across the Air Force over the next 15 years and this really is a game-changer when you start to consider diminishing sources of repair throughout the nation.”
The need for the part, a missing avionics panel L-bracket, arose during routine programmed depot maintenance of a B-1B Lancer. The part was not available from supply or surplus and, as a cast aluminum piece, it was a part that would also prove difficult to have the Air Force’s usual casting house partners produce due to the expensive nature of producing a single cast-aluminum bracket.
“When you say you just need one of these parts, usually casting houses won’t bid for it because a lot of the cost of the part is in developing the molds,” said Kyle Taylor, 76th Commodities Maintenance Group engineer. “Usually they make hundreds of thousands of parts when they’ve done that, so if you order just one part it becomes magnitudes more expensive than if you were ordering lots of the parts. Which is why most casting houses won’t do it, because it’s not even worth their time.”
Instead, the B-1B PDM line approached REACT with the proposal of producing the part in the lab to cut down on the extensive process that would have otherwise gone into replacing the part.
“The B-1 office has been hugely supportive of REACT over the last few years and this is just one more first for the B-1,” McCurry said. “We’ve done a lot on the polymer side, but this is the first time that a metal 3D part is flying on a bomber that we produced.”
Since the piece in question was originally cast as a single part and was not a major structural component on the aircraft, Taylor said it was quickly identified as an ideal candidate for the lab’s work with metal additive manufacturing.
The lab produced the 2-by-2 -by 2 inch part out of 17-4 PH stainless steel and, with a printing area of 9 1/2-by 9-1/2-by-12 inches, Taylor said the lab was able to print several duplicates to ensure there were backups in the event a problem developed with the initial part.
The part took 24 hours to print and once done, was passed along to Tinker’s chemistry lab to ensure the composition of the parts were correct and for an examination of the manufactured components’ metallurgical properties.
“The metallurgical lab did a full test on them and it showed that these would be two-and-a-half times stronger than the original part,” Taylor said. “All of this was stuff we had known beforehand when we were doing our own work to weigh out the processes, but it gave us the verification because it is easy to say all of that stuff but better when those groups can verify it.”
This novel first for the lab was not only significant for the additive manufacturing capability, but Taylor added that it was also important for the experience it provided for all parties involved with such a unique situation and how it can be further navigated as more parts are produced in a similar manner.
“What’s more exciting is everyone got this experience,” Taylor said. “The labs got to review our work and familiarize themselves with metal additive manufacturing and the SPOs gained experience going through the approval process. We’re hoping to work with more SPOs in the future, so this is a good part to get our feet wet.”
| Date Taken: | 05.20.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 07.26.2020 22:20 |
| Story ID: | 374627 |
| Location: | TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, OKLAHOMA, US |
| Web Views: | 464 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, REACTing to the B-1B Lancer’s first 3D printed metal part, by Tiffany English, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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