Innovative Fabrication and Repair of Aerospace Invar Molds using Large Scale Additive Metals Manufacturing Methods

This project will be the first project to be initiated under the recent DOE/NSF agreement for collaborative research at the ORNL Manufacturing Demonstration Facility. The project will be sponsored by GKN Aerospace USA through new Ma2JIC membership. Lincoln Additive Solutions will be a collaborator.

The motivation for this project is to explore the feasibility of using robotic MIG large scale additive metals manufacturing (LSAMM) to reduce costs associated with the fabrication and repair of large Invar molds used in the production of composite aircraft parts. Invar is used in composites fabrication because of its very low coefficient of thermal expansion across typical autoclave curing temperature cycles. Invar is an expensive material, and the lead times for the fabrication of large molds is long resulting in high costs and stressed supply chain performance. LSAMM offers the potential to fabricate these molds and their support structures in new and innovative ways that significantly reduce the amount of material needed, and to facilitate full automation of much of the overall process. LSAMM also offers the possibility of performing mold surface repair and refurbishing with reduced costs and higher levels of automation via sensor-based identification of defects and focused automated weld filling repairs.

Industry Sponsor: GKN Aerospace, ORNL/MDF, Lincoln Additive Solutions

FacultyBill Hamel (UTK)

Graduate Student: Matt Lamsey

Faculty Contact: Chris Allison (GKN), Andrzej Nycz (ONRL/MDF), Jason Flamm (Lincoln Additive Solutions)