Carpenter Technology Corporation and Belgium-based BMT Aerospace have joined forces to additively manufacture aerospace pinion.
As part of this partnership, Carpenter Technology has brought its expertise in materials. Its material 465® Stainless has been leveraged to achieve this production.
BMT Aerospace is raising standards in the global aerospace industry. The company manufactures gears, gearboxes, transmissions and actuators.
BMT Aerospace’s subsidiary BMT Additive initiated the project by partnering with Carpenter Technology to produce a redesigned pinion. The redesign project aimed to harness the benefits of additive manufacturing using high quality, printable material that would attain the high-performance expectations for the application.
“BMT Aerospace strongly believes in the disruptive potential of additive manufacturing and its possibilities in aerospace,” explained Ewald Goossens, Business Unit Manager of BMT Additive. “As a small player in the market, we strongly believe in cooperation opportunities like these, where each partner can rely and build on a project, starting from its own expertise. Our specific knowledge in design and manufacturing in aerospace, and our abilities in custom design for metal additive manufacturing, are a perfect match with Carpenter Technology’s knowledge of high quality and innovative products.”
Both companies produced an optimized part via additive manufacturing that could be exploited across several applications.
The teams 3D printed the part in Carpenter Technology’s business unit Carpenter Additive, using their high-strength, Custom 465® Stainless. Design, validation and post-processing for the redesigned pinion was done by BMT Aerospace.
“Collaborations like the one with BMT Aerospace demonstrate how partnerships across raw material, production, validation and design can rapidly bring to commercial reality new parts with next step performance potential,” said Marshall Akins, Carpenter’s Vice President, Aerospace Markets. “Carpenter Additive’s suite of capabilities presents powerful tools to accelerate our customer’s additive aspirations.”