Vineet Kumar Vashishtha et al.

/ International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST)

ADVANCEMENT OF RAPID
PROTOTYPING IN AEROSPACE
INDUSTRY -A REVIEW
Vineet Kumar Vashishtha
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur,
Himachal Pradesh-177055
India.
Rahul Makade
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur,
Himachal Pradesh-177055
India.
Neeraj Mehla
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur,
Himachal Pradesh-177055
India.
Abstract :
Rapid prototyping technology have emerged a new innovation to reduced the time cost of moulds
fabrication by creating 3D product directly from computer aided design thus the designer is able to perform
design validation and accuracy analysis easily in a virtual environment as if using a physical model.
The primary aim of this paper is to give the reader an overview of the current state of the art in rapid
prototyping technology .The paper also deal with features of rapid prototyping in Aerospace industry and some
of the existing problems of rapid prototyping.
Introduction
Due to the pressure of international competition and market globalization in the 21st century, there
continues to be strong driving forces in the industry to compete effectively by reducing manufacturing times and
cost while assuming high quality product and service however convectional machining methods is characterized
by long lead time and high cost .It cannot meet the demand for rapid product development.

Rapid prototyping has emerged as a key enabling technology with its ability to shorten product development and
manufacturing process that produces a physical prototype from a 3D cad model layer by layer which is also
called as layer manufacturing .The first rapid prototyping technique stereo-lithography was developed by 3D
system of Valencia, California, USA in 1986 since then number of different R.P technique have been developed

ISSN : 0975-5462

Vol. 3 No. 3 March 2011

2486

Vineet Kumar Vashishtha et al. / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST)

till date. It aims to produce prototype relatively quickly for visual inspection, ergonomic evaluation, form fit
analysis and as master pattern for product tool etc in a virtual environment as if using a physical model allowing
a better understanding to the designer. The application of R.P to the product manufacturing process has shown a
60% decrease in lead time over traditional method with the various advantages that R.P technology promise R.P
has begun to make its way in to the aeronautical industry and is set to have profound implication. The Northron
Grunman global hawk, it is just one of many vehicles which depend on R.P for its development. Fig (1) explains
the % use of R.P in aerospace industry which is mearly just 8.2% and is implementation is increasing at a much
faster rate.
The Aerospace industry in particular is playing a leading role in the application of the new technologies
to improve aircraft development and manufacturing. Several Aeronautical companies are currently at the stage
of working on qualifying R.P processes so that they can be included in specifications on real world programs.
Desirable feature of R.P in Aircraft industry

1.) Low production volumes.

Aeronautical development has always been costly for several reasons. One of the contributing factors is
ineffective amortization of tooling costs over a low production volume.
2.) Constant design iterations.
Due to such a high number of iterations in design, being able to simply use a new file for the production of the
part without any tooling modifications means that RM is capable of huge time and cost savings.
3.) Geometric design complexity.
The aeronautical industry produces some of the most complex part geometry. As vehicles get smaller and more
efficient, the design pressures to combine part numbers together makes manufacturing by traditional means
much more of a challenge than when using RM.
4.) Testing of new materials.
RM has the potential of processing more exotic materials, faster and cheaper. It also allows for prototyping and
small volume trials of new materials, again without the need to ever invest in tooling.
There are three general areas where Aeronautical companies are measuring a technologys acceptance
level, as applied to R.P.
1.) Materials processed in R.P equipment
2.) Process-related parameters
3.) Geometry limitations of the R.P equipment
Few acceptable materials are primarily the nylon. Material such as flame retardant nylon, exotic metal
like titanium and high order engineering grade materials is under development and can innovate the future of
R.P in Aerospace industry. The downside to rapid manufacturing processes is its lack of an appropriate range of
materials at present for its application in aerospace industry which imposes stringent quality, demands current
materials such as sintered nylon, epoxy resin and composite materials are often good enough for most low
volume applications, for example
1.) Evaluation of components by visualization
2.) Evaluation of design variations
3.) Estimation of the surface quality of the aircraft model
4.) Evaluation of the aircraft interior
5.) Ergonomic valuation with the aid of virtual reality.
Not all technologies using layer-based fabrication are a good fit for aeronautical applications.
Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA) uses a quality function
deployment(QFD) approach for selecting the most appropriate R.P technology .Surveying the different layerbased technology platforms that are commercially available today, only the followings are practically applicable
which are discuss here
1.) Selective laser sintering (SLS)
2.) Stereo lithography (SL)
3.) Fused deposition modelling (FDM)
The basic process of R.P

A part is first modelled by using a computer aided design (CAD) software package .The CAD file is
than converted into STL(Standard Triangulation Language) format which contains the coordinates of the
vertices and the direction the STL model is than mathematically sliced into series of parallel cross-section pieces

ISSN : 0975-5462

Vol. 3 No. 3 March 2011

2487

Vineet Kumar Vashishtha et al. / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST)

which may vary from 0.01 mm to 0.7 mm .The program may also generate an auxiliary structure to support the
model during the build .The curing or binding paths are directly used to instruct the machine for producing the
part by solidifying or binding a line material after a layer is built a new layer is built on the previous one in the
same manner thus the model is built layer by layer from top to bottom .The prototype is produced by adding a
material rather than removing it. Fig (2) explains the general steps involved in R.P and fig (3,4) shows the STL
view and sliced model of an aircraft.
Rapid prototyping and manufacturing process

At present there are nearly 20 different recognised R.P technologies .There exist two major aspects
which divides the R.P technology. The type of material used (liquid, solid, power based) Type of part building
technique, some of the R.P process is explain in detail

1. Stereo lithography

The stereo lithography apparatus is the first commercial R.P process which was invented by Charles Hull in
1987 by 3D system .The Stereo Lithography is an additive manufacturing process in which a liquid photo
curable resin acryl-ate material is used. The process begins with the vat filled with the photo-curable liquid resin
and the elevator table set just below the surface of the liquid resin. A laser beam then traces a single layer crosssection onto the surface of a vat of liquid polymer vectorizing first in one direction and then in the orthogonal
direction and undergoing the photo polymerization Process (linking small molecules known as monomers into
chain-like larger molecules known as polymers) which causes the polymer to harden precisely at the point
where the ultraviolet light hits the surface. The UV laser is controlled by a galvanometer driven mirrors to
generate XY motion. After a pattern has been traced, the SLA's elevator platform descends by a single layer

ISSN : 0975-5462

Vol. 3 No. 3 March 2011

2488

Vineet Kumar Vashishtha et al. / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST)

thickness, typically 0.05 mm to 0.15 mm 0.002" to 0.006" . Then, a resin-filled blade sweeps across the part
cross section, re-coating it with fresh material. On this new liquid surface, the subsequent layer pattern is traced;
adhering to the previous layer, in this way, the model is built layer by layer from bottom to top. When all layers
are completed, the prototype is about 95% cured. Afterward, the solid part is removed from the vat and rinsed
clean of excess liquid Supports are broken off and the model is then placed in an ultraviolet oven for complete
curing.

Capacity
The vat which holds the liquid polymer determines the size limit of the prototype. There are several models

available,

including

those

in

the

series

of SLA190 7.9 7.9 9.8in3 , SLA250 / 30 A 10 10 10in3 ,

SLA250 / 50 10 10 10in3 , SLA3500 13.8 13.8 15.7in3 , SLA5000 20 20 23in3

SLA7000 20 20 23.6in3 and Vipersi 2 10 10 10in3 .

Model accuracy and performance

The accuracy achieved is about 0.1% of the overall dimension and deteriorates with larger sizes but no more
than 0.5%. The layer thickness is between 0.004 and 0.03 in. Presently, the SLA machines are the most accurate.
Material
There are five commercially available photopolymers. All of them are a kind of acrylate.
Examples are aerospace, armaments, automotive (Ford Uses Stereo lithography to Cast Prototype Tooling costs
reduced by 45% and time savings of more than 40% achieved), consumer electronics, consumer products, toys,
industrial equipment, medical equipment, surgical applications, and dental applications.
2. Fused deposition modelling (FDM)

Fused deposition modelling (FDM) is an additive manufacturing technology .The technology was
developed by S. Scott Crump in the late 1980s and this process was first commercialized by Stratasys in 1990.
The FDM machine use a CAD model to produce a physical prototypes by taking the STL file created by the
CAD model and first converting it into an SML file which generate a tool-path to manoeuvre for each layer or
slice to deposit material. The slice thickness can be set manually to anywhere between 0.172 to 0.356 mm
(0.005 to 0.014 in) depending on the needs of the models. The fused deposition modelling (FDM) process
creates parts by extruding material (normally a thermoplastic polymer) it consist of a heating chamber which is a
90-degree curved elbow wrapped in a heating element, which serves as a melting area for the material and to
change the direction of the filament flow so that material is extruded vertically downward. In a semi molten
form through a nozzle that traverses in X and Y direction to create a two-dimensional layer. The material
solidifies in 0.1s as it is directed on to the workplace. Once a layer is complete indexing is done in the Zdirection for building the next layer. In 2006, FDM was the best-selling rapid prototyping technology [1]. The
material properties of FDM parts are tough enough to perform functional tests. and have high heat resistance .It
is able to fabricate fully functional parts that have 85% of the strength of the actual moulded part, because of
this reason it is highly applicable for Aerospace and Aviation industries.

ISSN : 0975-5462

Vol. 3 No. 3 March 2011

2489

Vineet Kumar Vashishtha et al. / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST)

Support
In many cases, the FDM process does not need support to produce part. The FDM extrusion head forms a
precision horizontal support in mid-air as it solidifies. For overhanging parts, a support may still be required,
which can be manual or, water soluble supports to reduce part distortion.
Material
The FDM technology allows a variety of modelling materials and colours for model building. Available
materials are investment casting wax, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plastic, medical grade AB,
thermoplastic, Elastomer material, polycarbonate, polyphenylsulfone (PPSF), and various versions of these
materials. All the materials are non-toxic and can be in different colours. There is minimum material wastage in
the method. No post-curing is required.
Model accuracy and performance
The overall tolerance is 0.005" Successive laminations are within the range Of 0.001" to 0.05" and wall
thickness ranges from 0.01" to 0.25" .The prototype built in the FDM process has 1.2% of the maximum
shrinkage.
Capacity
The FDM systems have evolved through several models, beginning with the original 3D Modeller, a floor unit,
and progressing through the various "desktop units", including the 1500, 1600, 1650, 2000, 8000, and Quantum.
Basically, the 1500 through 2000 models are capable of building parts in the 10" 10" 10" range, whereas the
8000 and the Quantum can build 24" 20" 24" parts. The 3D modeller operation speed is up to 15" s 1 .
3. Selective laser sintering (SLS)

DTM Corp. (Austin TX) offers an alternative to liquid-curing systems with its SLS systems which were
developed by Carl Deckard and Joseph Beaman at the Mechanical Engineering Department of University of
Texas at Austin. SLS uses a carbon dioxide laser to sinter successive layers of powder instead of liquid. In SLS
processes, a thin layer of powder is applied by a counter-rotating roller mechanism onto the work place. The
powder material is preheated to a temperature slightly below its melting point. The laser beam traces the crosssection on the powder surface to heat up the powder to the sintering temperature so that the powder scanned by
the laser is bonded. The powder that is not scanned by the laser will remain in place to serve as the support to
the next layer of powder, which aids in reducing distortion. When a layer of the cross-section is completed, the
roller levels another layer of powder over the sintered one for the next pass. Fig 7 shows the working principle
of SLS. SLS has several features. SLS uses a wide range of materials for model production including
polycarbonate, PVC (polyvinyl chloride), ABS (acrylonirile butadine styrene), nylon, resin, polyster,
polypropane, polyurethane and investment casting wax. The machine that is capable of using metal and ceramic
powder is in the process of development.

ISSN : 0975-5462

Vol. 3 No. 3 March 2011

2490

Vineet Kumar Vashishtha et al. / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST)

Support

The SLS systems usually do not need pre-designed support structures. The unfused powder on every layer acts
as a support during the building process.
Model accuracy and performance
The average accuracy achieved ranges from 0.005" to 0.015" for a part with 12" diameter and 15" height. The
layer thickness is between and 0.003" and 0.02" .The product may suffer shrinkage and warpage due to sintering
and cooling. These two factors can be partly eliminated by choosing powder particles which have a small size,
and a high aspect ratio and air flow temperature above the softening point of the powder, but below the sintering
point.
Capacity
The maximum part dimensions are 12" in diameter and 15" deep for the commercialized SLS Model 125 with
20 watt co2 laser power.
Recycling
The prototype can be crushed into powder for reuse.
Aerodynamics loads on an aircraft

For an air born structure like the aircraft the basic load which is continuously acting on it is the lift and drag this
force directly affect the internal structure of an aircraft.
1
L cl v 2 s
2
1
D cd v 2 s
2
Higher the velocity ( v ), density , surface area s and co-efficient of lift cl and drag cd higher will be
the amount of force which the aircraft has to withstand but from material point of view the rapid prototyping
technology is at its early stage to replace the traditional aircraft manufacturing process by rapid prototyping
technology .the table (1) show different material used in R.P process and table (2) show the different material
properties used in R.P technology.

ISSN : 0975-5462

Vol. 3 No. 3 March 2011

2491

Vineet Kumar Vashishtha et al. / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST)

Table.1. Material and different process in R.P

SLA

Polymer

SLS

Ceramic, Wax and Alloy

FDM

Wax and Polymer

Table .2 Properties of different material used in R.P

Property

Units

SLA

SLS

FDM

SL5170

Protoform

ABS

Tensile strength

Psi

8,700

7,100

5,000

Tensile modulus

Ksi

575

408

360

Elongation at break

12

50

Flexural strength

Psi

15,600

Flexural modulus

Ksi

429

625

380

Impact strength

Ft-lb/in

0.6

1.25

Hardness

(Shore D)

85

105

9,500

Still R.P is proving its important place in aerospace industry Layer-build technology was successfully
implemented on the F/A-18 by the US Navy. Using Nylon11 by SLS for a low rate production application,
similarly a series of parts that formed the ductwork were built on a Vanguard SLS machine to check the
flightworthiness by BAe (British aerospace), Design Verification of an Airline Electrical Generator, Engine
Components for Fanjet Engine, Prototyping Air Inlet Housing for Gas Turbine Engine Fabrication of FlightCertified Production Castings

Similarly example is the wind tunnel model of the European tilt rotor realized by the R.P department of CRP
technology during the first month of 2007. The important aspect of aerospace industry is the wind tunnel testing
where rapid prototyping (RP) is proving its important value. Initial studies of the aerodynamic characteristics in

ISSN : 0975-5462

Vol. 3 No. 3 March 2011

2492

Vineet Kumar Vashishtha et al. / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST)

the early design phase for proposed launch vehicles can be made more accurately from a aerodynamic model
And the materials used in r.p model should posses sufficient strength and fidelity to withstand the testing
environment of the wind tunnel. One such example is the wind tunnel model of the European tilt rotar realized
by the r.p department of CRP technology during the first month of 2007 by using wind form material. The
model was completed and tested in a very short interval of time with excellent result and high performing
mechanical and aerodynamic properties. Thus Layer-build technology is successfully implemented for a lowrate production application and early design criteria .The benefits, which included design flexibility, no tooling
and just-in-time delivery, all contributed to the end customer accepting and allowing this technology to be
implemented in aerospace industry.

Conclusions
RP methods have been shown to be feasible in limited direct application to aircraft testing for
predicting preliminary aerodynamic databases. Cost savings and model design/fabrication time reductions
greater than a factor of 4 have been realized for RP techniques as compared to current standard model
design/fabrication practices. At this time, RP methods and materials can be used only for preliminary design
studies and limited configurations due to the RP material properties that allow bending of model components
under high loading conditions. The uncertainty, or accuracy, of the data is lower than that of a metal model due
to surface finish and dimensional tolerances, but is quite accurate enough for this level of testing. The difference
in the aerodynamic data between the metal and RP models' aerodynamics is acceptable for this level of
preliminary design. The use of RP models will provide a rapid capability in the determination of the
aerodynamic characteristics of preliminary designs over a large Mach range. This range covers the transonic
regime, a regime in which analytical and empirical capabilities sometimes fall short. However, at this time,
replacing machined-metal models with RP models for detailed parametric aerodynamic and control surface
effectiveness studies is not considered practical because of the high configuration fidelity required and the loads
that deflected control surfaces must withstand. Further investigations will be required to prove that RP
capability in Aircraft industry.

Reference
[1]

A Review Of Rapid Prototyping Technologies And Systems Xue Yan And P Gu, Department Of Mechanical Engineering, University
Of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
[2] Rapid Prototyping Of An Aircraft Model In An Object-Oriented Simulation, P. Sean Kenney, Systems Development Branch,Nasa
Langley Research Center, Mail Stop 125b Hampton Va 23681.
[3] A Virtual Prototyping System For Rapid Product Development,S.H. Choi, A.M.M. Chan, Department Of Industrial And
Manufacturing Systems Engineering, The University Of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China.
[4] Rapid Prototyping Technology Selection And Application, Kenneth G. Cooper, National Aeronautics And Space Administration
(Nasa), Marshall Space And Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama.
[5] Rapid Prototyping And Engineering Applications, A Toolbox For Prototype Development, By Frank W. Liou, Crc Press,Taylor &
Francis Group,Boca Raton, London,Newyork.
[6] Http://En.Wikipedia.Org/Wiki/File:Rapid_Prototyping_Worldwide_By_Zureks.Png
[7] A Virtual Prototyping System For Rapid Product Development, S.H. Choi, A.M.M. Chan Department Of Industrial And
Manufacturing Systems Engineering.
[8] Rapid Prototyping Principles And Applications, By Chua C.K.,Leong K.F.And Lim C.S., Nanyang Technological
University,Singapore
[9] Rapid Manufacturing. An Industrial Revolution For The Digital Age, Editors N. Hopkinson, R.J.M. Hague And P.M. Dickens
Loughborough University, Uk, Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex Po19
8sq, England.
[10] Www.Docstoc.Com/Docs/14152518/Rapid-Prototyping-Application-In-The-Aerospace-Sector--Windform-Gf/
[11] Rapid Prototyping,Theory And Practice,Edited By Ali K. Kamrani,Emad Abouel Nasr.

ISSN : 0975-5462

Vol. 3 No. 3 March 2011

2493