Laser‐sintering in the Aerospace Industry is on the Rise

Abstract

Today's aerospace suppliers are operating in a highly competitive market that is characterized by an increasing number of customized and more complex parts and products, yet decreasing production quantities. this cannot be handled with normal serial production characterized by a high number of identical products. to meet these requirements, the industry has to break new grounds in part production. In addition, we see global markets facing ever shortening product life cycles and product variety on the rise which makes spare part supply increasingly difficult as well. Small lot sizes tend to make the use of traditional manufacturing technologies a too cost‐intensive investment. Manufacturing methods that are based on economies of scale are no longer in a position to meet these challenges. In sum, the prerequisites for efficient manufacturing today are thus high‐performance materials yet creating cost savings.