DISTOPIA - Distorting the Aerospace Manufacturing Boundaries: Operational Integration of Autonomy on Titanium

The classical design and manufacturing paradigm in aerospace leads to a high buy-to-fly ratio because almost 90% of raw materials are turned into scrap, through subtractive machining from forged billet. This is the case even for costly, advanced engineering Ti-alloys where traditional manufacturing routes are employed. Scrapping most of the raw material through machining and other processing routines also results in increased lead times which falls behind the complex requirements of the current aerospace manufacturing landscape.

The DISTOPIA project will address these problem - distorting aerospace manufacturing boundaries - by developing an automated, cost-efficient wire-fed DED additive manufacturing (AM) and repairing method, made possible using novel metallic wires with enhanced mechanical properties; combined with implementation of a full digital twin model of the process.

Additive manufacturing (AM) provides an alternative perspective compared to the conventional methods, particularly regarding the utilisation of raw materials, complex design capabilities, decreased lead times and costs as a combined effect. Wire-fed DED, commonly referred to as WAAM, is one of the AM techniques which ensures a high rate of productivity by leveraging arc welding while also maintaining reasonable costs through the use of traditional equipment like industrial robots and welding sources.

DISTOPIA focuses on a critical aspect for the future of WAAM, as current trend on AM is development of new materials that offer superior productivity and material properties compared to the ones developed and optimised for conventional manufacturing routes. This, combined with the use of advanced process monitoring and control systems will lead the way for the optimisation and adaptation of the technology for the aerospace industry. These will overcome critical barriers to entry for the WAAM DED approach, helping to make the approach more readily available and accepted.

Cost will be significantly reduced in two main ways:

1. By requiring only wire material as needed for part mass
2. By eliminating the requirement for stock - typically over 2 million spare parts across multiple aircraft designs.

These savings will increase the global competitiveness of the European aerospace industry and support sustainable development goals. With DISTOPIA this will be demonstrated for 3 aerospace manufacturing/repair examples, as well as considering applicability to other sectors (mining, energy, chemical processing).