GKN Aerospace opens additive manufacturing pilot production cell at ORNL:
17 June 2019: GKN Aerospace has commissioned the second additive manufacturing cell (Cell 2) at the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Cell 2 is situated at the DOE's manufacturing demonstration facility at ORNL and is the world's largest pilot production cell of its kind and is the next stage in GKN Aerospace's additive manufacturing research and development targeting large scale structural aircraft components.
CEO of GKN Aerospace's Aerostructures North America business, Mike McCann said, "We are proud to introduce the next step in our additive manufacturing research as we continue to push the boundaries of this transformative technology. We believe this to be the largest laser metal deposition with wire (LMD-w) pilot production cell in the world. With this, we will target large scale aerostructure components with a focus on dramatic improvements in buy-to-fly and cost reductions over plate and forgings."
For more than a decade, GKN Aerospace has been at the forefront of LMD-w technology. This started at its aero-engine systems business based in Sweden. GKN Aerospace expanded its LMD-w expertise in 2017 into large-scale aerostructures components by signing a five-year $17.8 million USD research agreement with ORNL.
"We are extremely proud to strengthen our relationship with this world-renowned laboratory to accelerate our progress towards fully industrialising these processes for large-scale aerostructures components. Through our cooperative research, we have seen first-hand how additive manufacturing will continue to revolutionise the design and manufacture of aircraft structures. This cell will allow us to create complex components without compromising performance," said Mike McCann.
"Our research collaboration with GKN Aerospace demonstrates the rapid progress that can be made when industry and the national labs work hand in hand," said Moe Khaleel, Associate Laboratory Director for Energy and Environmental Sciences at ORNL. "We are pleased to see our relationship with GKN expand, and look forward to continued technological innovation in our mission to translate science into solutions for advanced manufacturing."
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