3-D printing in the aerospace industry

The D-Shape printer manufactured by the British company Monolite is used for 3-D printing. In addition to 3-D printing fuel nozzles, General Electric is also actively developing the ability of 3-D printing to create parts for the world's largest jet engine, the GE9X, for the next generation of Boeing 777X passenger aircraft. A new joint project between Autodesk and Stratasys, in which a life-size turboprop engine was 3-D printed, showed how promising the use of 3-D printing is in the production of jet engine parts. NASA is developing a 3-D printer for printing spare parts directly on the International Space Station (ISS). Indeed, the development of 3-D printers in the near future could significantly affect the space industry in general and the prospects for the development of individual design bureaus in particular. Experiments with 3-D printing in space offer the potential to print the required parts should any parts fail in space. The printed objects include a part of the printer itself, the bezel of the print head, which symbolizes the ability to one day print a 3-D printer in space using a 3-D printer. In 2016, another Made in Space printer called the Additive Manufacturing Facility was delivered to the ISS. Since then, printing tests on the ISS have been taking place regularly.