RAF 71 Inspection & Repair (IR) Squadron have shared another great application that has been delivered with additive manufacturing (AM). So, you probably won’t be too surprised to learn that Wayland Additive’s Calibur3 system was part of the solution.
On this occasion, the part in question was a replacement Main Wheel Nut Locking Collar. It sounds innocuous enough, but a main wheel nut locking collar is actually a critical fastening component that ensures the security and stability of an aircraft’s landing gear.
This application demanded a combined polymer and metal AM approach, because the main wheel nut locking collar requires the structural strength and heat resistance of a metal body to secure the wheel, while a polymer (nylon) insert provides the necessary elastic deformation and torque to prevent the assembly from loosening under high-frequency vibration.
The team has detailed their workflow for this application, starting with how they used HandyScan technology at a deployed location to collect the necessary data of the part. Aircraft Repair (AR) Flight then processed and manipulated the 3D scan data before securely transmitting the refined file to 71 IR Squadron’s AM cell, where the team developed a precise solid 3D CAD model that was then uploaded to both polymer and metal 3D printer software platforms, ready for production.
With materials loaded and systems configured the polymer (Stratasys) and metallic (Wayland Additive’s Calibur3) 3D printers were deployed.
Both successfully produced the component efficiently and, vitally, to specification. It was then subsequently returned to the remote site for operational use as required.