GKN Aerospace has achieved Nadcap accreditation for its laser wire directed energy deposition (L-DED-w) process. The company claims to be the first in the world to hold this accreditation for L-DED-w.
Ensuring repeatability of a manufacturing process is one of the holy grails in aerospace. As the industry’s accreditation program for special processes, Nadcap’s role is to check precisely whether a supplier’s process meets requirements for quality, traceability and process control.
If you are not familiar with L-DED-w, note that the process consists in melting a metal wire with a laser to build up material layer by layer. In GKN Aerospace’s case, the audit went through how the process is controlled and documented, who operates it and with which qualifications, the equipment, and how material is handled and traced.
“Our customers are looking for trusted partners that can help industrialise advanced manufacturing technologies. For additive manufacturing, that means having robust and repeatable processes that can support the move into industrial production. Nadcap accreditation is an important step in that journey, giving us a stronger foundation for broader application of L-DED-w across aerospace and defence,” said Sébastien Aknouche, SVP Material Solutions at GKN Aerospace.
Not surprisingly, the company presents the accreditation as a way to accelerate further L-DED-w applications into full aerospace production. The company also confirms it “has already designed, developed and delivered fully certified additively manufactured components, which are in flight today”.
So far, GKN Aerospace’s Trollhättan facility, in Sweden, delivered the additively fabricated core structure of the Fan Case Mount Ring (FCMR), a component of the Pratt & Whitney GTF engine. And last year, the company added a production line dedicated to this component in Newington, Connecticut.
I can’t wait to see which parts will be next.
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