LOT Polish Airlines is the flag carrier of Poland and one of the longest operating airlines in the world, with more than 80 aircraft serving destinations across Europe, Asia, and North America.
To keep this fleet in top condition, the engineering team often has to utilize replacement parts among which arm caps for the economy seats. The original arm cap was produced in multiple steps with a rubber cap surface attached to an injection molded frame which was attached to the seat. Over time, the interface between the rubber cap and the plastic frame is degraded and the cap will no longer stay in position on the frame – leading, in the worst case, to the cap coming off in a passenger’s hand. Additionally, the plastic frame frequently breaks where it attaches to the seat. Procuring additional parts from the original supplier became difficult and LOT sought an improved alternative.
That’s where AM Craft comes into play.
Launched last year with a key focus on manufacturing 3D printed aircraft interior parts, this project is a testament to what AM Craft can do with Additive Manufacturing.
The team designed a new arm cap as a single 3D printed piece.
This eliminated the interface issues between the two parts. AM Craft also redesigned the interface to the seat in order to reduce the risk of breaking in the location that the previous design had experienced. To achieve the expected finish and quality, AM Craft utilized a specialized process of smoothing and painting the outward surface. This also allowed AM Craft to exactly color match the LOT Polish cabin interior.
“Over time, components experience wear and tear in a frequently used space like an aircraft cabin,” said Maja Margul, Continuing Airworthiness Junior Specialist at LOT Polish Airlines. “We maintain an inventory of spare parts to ensure timely replacements as needed. However, occasionally, parts wear out faster than anticipated, become unavailable from the original manufacturer, have extended lead times, or require design enhancements.”“Originally, we intended to just replace the broken arm caps with replacements from the seat manufacturer, but the AM Craft part was such an improvement that we replaced all the arm caps with the 3D printed version,” said Margul.
AM Craft was able to offer a more cost effective low-to-mid volume price than a new design that relied on traditional manufacturing technologies would be able to achieve.
AM Craft used Stratasys FDM® technology and ULTEM(TM) 9085 filament to produce the printed arm caps. Mankiewicz’s ALEXIT® coating system was used by AM Craft to color match and cosmetically finish the arm caps.
In total, 1200 arm caps were produced by AM Craft for installation on Boeing 737s in the LOT Polish Airlines Fleet. AM Craft managed the certification of the arm caps and delivers them to LOT Polish Airlines with an EASA Form 1 Airworthiness Certificate.
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