Additive manufacturing delivers world’s first self-reinforced fuselage panel

The supporting structure was deposited using Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (Credit: Stelia)

In what it claims is a world first, the company used a process known as WAAM – Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing – to deposit the stiffening aluminium wire to the inner surface of the 1x1m² panel. Currently, the web-like stiffening structures inside fuselages are screwed or welded into place by hand. According to Stelia, the new technique could present an opportunity to rethink and redesign fuselages, removed from the constraints of having to attach the reinforcing lattices at a later stage.

"With this 3D additive manufacturing demonstrator, Stelia Aerospace aims to provide its customers with innovative designs on very large structural parts derived from new calculation methods," said Cédric Gautier, CEO of Stelia Aerospace.

"Through its R&T department, and thanks to its partners, Stelia Aerospace is therefore preparing the future of aeronautics, with a view to develop technologies that are always more innovative and will directly impact our core business, aerostructures."