Boeing and Thermwood Form Partnership
June 1, 2019
Boeing and Thermwood Corporation have employed additive manufacturing (AM) technology to produce a large, single-piece tool for the 777X program. The project is demonstrating that AM is ready to produce production quality tooling for the aerospace industry.
Thermwood used a Large-Scale Additive Manufacturing (LSAM) machine and newly developed Vertical Layer Print (VLP) 3-D printing technology to fabricate the tool as a one-piece print, eliminating the additional cost and schedule required for assembly of multiple 3-D printed tooling components. In the joint demonstration program, Thermwood printed and trimmed the 12' R&D tool at its southern Indiana demonstration lab and delivered it to Boeing in August 2018.
Boeing Research & Technology Engineer Michael Matlack believes the use of Thermwood's AM technology in this application provided a significant advantage, saving weeks of time and enabling delivery of the tool before traditional tooling could be fabricated.
The tool was printed as a single piece from 20% carbon fiber reinforced ABS using the VLP system. Boeing purchased a Thermwood LSAM machine with the VLP functionality for the Interiors Responsibility Center (IRC) facility in Everett, WA. "The ability to quickly produce large-scale tooling at a quality level suitable for a real world production environment represents a significant step in moving additive technology from the laboratory to the factory floor," said a Thermwood spokesperson.
For more information contact:
Thermwood Corporation
904 Buffaloville Road
Dale, IN 47523
800-533-6901
info@thermwood.com
www.thermwood.com
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