Embraer: Innovation through Additive Manufacturing
Embraer, the world’s third largest aircraft manufacturer, located in Gavião Peixoto in São Paulo, stands out for its disruptive innovation in additive manufacturing, using dddrop industrial 3D printers. A successful project was carried out, combining creativity and cutting edge manufacturing in composite materials through 3D printing.
Embraer’s executive jets are varied to meet the specific and exclusive needs of customers. The interiors of these jets are carefully manufactured from composite materials and special woods. Throughout the manufacturing process, material has to be removed by using machining.
To clean and remove debris from machining, the engineers have invented a creative solution, in which a rotational vacuum suction system was attached to the head of a robotic system. This system rotates dynamically perpendicularly towards the moving tool head. The suction unit had to be installed in a very small area and move dynamically around the Z axis, controlled by a stepper motor and a logic control unit.
Instead of opting for a traditional CNC solution, which would be costly and time consuming, the team opted for a lighter and much less time consuming solution, using the dddrop Evo Twin 3D printer and a carbon fiber nylon filament with a strength-to-weight ratio superior to steel. The result was a success.
“For our project, the dddrop Evo Twin allowed us to use a wide variety of functional filaments ranging from wood to flexible material, soluble support material and materials with high resistance and temperature tolerance”, said José Otavio Savazzi, engineer at Embraer. “Additive manufacturing and the combination of generative design and functional composite materials play an increasingly important role in our design and manufacturing process,” he added.
Learn more about Embraer here.
Learn more about dddrop Brazil here.
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