Airbus Group partners with Dassault Systèmes to expand additive manufacturing of tooling and parts for test flights, commercial aircraft

VÉLIZY-VILLACOUBLAY, France, 9 June 2016. Airbus Group engineers are extending their use of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform – from Dassault Systèmes, maker of 3D design software, 3D digital mock up, and product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions – to the company’s additive manufacturing (also known as 3D printing) programs integrating design, simulation, and production.

Following a two-year benchmarking process, Airbus Group engineers and officials have elected to deploy Dassault Systèmes’ collaborative design and simulation applications as part of the “Co-Design to Target” industry solution experience. The applications will aid in the additive manufacturing of tooling, prototyping, and parts for test flights and for production use on commercial aircraft.

Dassault Systèmes’ software provide Airbus Group with digital continuity to optimize its conceptual designs by virtually validating each phase of the additive manufacturing process. Leveraging Dassault Systèmes’ applications and its own leadership and engineering expertise in additive manufacturing, Airbus Group can explore greater design and manufacturing possibilities to meet engineering and manufacturing requirements for the additive manufacturing of tools and parts.

Additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, is an alternative to production processes such as milling, melting, casting, and precision forging. Already adopted by the aerospace industry for creative product design and prototyping, the use of additive manufacturing is gradually extending to large-scale production. The “Co-Design to Target” industry solution experience leverages applications for additive manufacturing to offer high flexibility in part design, production and testing. This helps reduce waste and costs associated with the manufacturing of complex aircraft parts, without sacrificing strength or performance.

“Numerous projects across Airbus are accelerating the use of additive manufacturing to produce prototypes as well as production components potentially delivering lighter and less expensive parts that meet technological, performance, safety, and cost standards,” says Robert Nardini, senior vice president engineering airframe, Airbus. “Airbus has long used Dassault Systèmes’ simulation applications to accelerate the structural analysis and virtual testing of aircraft and now we can define a new way of designing parts by leveraging simulation-based design to better answer aviation market needs.”

“Additive manufacturing creates new opportunities in many different areas such as remote fabrication for support and maintenance, rapid prototyping for realizing new concepts and experiences and, perhaps most importantly, developing designs that were heretofore impossible to fabricate,” says Dominique Florack, senior executive vice president, research & development, Dassault Systèmes. “With this approach, Airbus Group will be able to take advantage of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform’s next-generation automated design assistant for parts, whether they are 3D printed or not, thus accelerating a new wave of transformation in the aerospace industry. With the 3DEXPERIENCE platform we are delivering an end-to-end solution including all engineering parameters for the additive manufacturing of parts inclusive of material science, functional specification, generative design, 3D printing optimization, production, and certification.”

Dassault Systèmes, the 3DEXPERIENCE company, provides business and people with virtual universes to imagine sustainable innovations. Its world-leading solutions transform the way products are designed, produced, and supported. Dassault Systèmes’ collaborative solutions foster social innovation, expanding possibilities for the virtual world to improve the real world. The group brings value to over 210,000 customers of all sizes, in all industries, in more than 140 countries.