Researchers Create World's First 3D-Printed Jet Engines

Zothecula writes: Working with colleagues from Deakin University and CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization), researchers from Australia's Monash University have created the world's first 3D-printed jet engine. While they were at it, they created the world's second one, too. One of them is currently on display at the International Air Show in Avalon, Australia, while the other can be seen at the headquarters of French aerospace company Microturbo, in Toulouse.

Comments

Legitimate use for 3D printing

[monkeyxpress]

It is just a display model, but this is actually one of the applications of 3D printing worth getting excited about.

Jet engines are a good candidate because they are low volume, high margin, and the current designs are compromised somewhat by the existing manufacturing technologies available. The ability to make more complex aerodynamic forms, create single parts with variations in material composition throughout, and the potential to speed up development and testing of different designs is huge for this industry.

However there are still a lot of issues to work through, and I’m not sure how they are ever going to produce a sintered turbine blade that can perform as well as an existing one. I would imagine much of their research is going into this area but these are tough problems to solve.

Re:is it an engine or a display model?

[BitZtream]

Which actually means ... they haven't produced a 3d printed turbine. They've produced a model of one. Higher quality than I can produce, sure, but not one thats actually any more useful than one I can produce.

This is a really good example of a stupid place to 3d print something, you're not going to get the strength you can get in traditional manufacturing techniques, its going to cost way more and you'll never find anyone with a clue about mechanical engineering trusting his/her life to one.