Chalmers Conferences, The 6th Swedish Production Symposium

ECONOMIC VIABILITY OF LASER METAL DEPOSITION
Andreas Segerstark, Joel Andersson, Lars-Erik Svensson

Last modified: 2014-11-24

Abstract


Reports on large economic savings using Additive Manufacturing (AM) has been found in literature when exploiting the positive capabilities of AM. This paper evaluates the economic potential of, the AM method, laser metal deposition (LMD) in production of add-on features compared to conventional manufacturing methods. This is done by theoretical case studies, which explore factors critical to the cost of manufacturing a jet engine flange. LMD has the potential to be an economical viable alternative to conventional manufacturing methods when the manufactured component has a high buy-to-fly ratio, the component is small and complex, if the operator time can be kept to a minimum, and/or when the design freedom of LMD can be capitalized into lighter and more efficient components.


Keywords


Laser metal deposition, Additive manufacturing, Economic, Aerospace

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