Moog Aircraft Group’s Military Aircraft Customer Support Cente in Wolverhampton has become the latest beneficiary of the large time and money savings that 3-D printing can deliver.

The defence manufacturer was keen to improve the way it produced bespoke co-ordinate measuring machine (CMM) fixtures for each of its machined parts — a process that has traditionally been out-sourced to external suppliers and has seen the parts made from tool steel.

Moog (www.moog.co.uk) identified 3-D printing as the best solution and turned to SYS Systems, which is part of Derbyshire-based Carfulan Group and supplies Stratasys products in the UK.

The latter’s Fortus 380 was selected for the job; it uses fused deposition modelling (FDM) to create parts quickly in high-quality production-grade thermoplastics.

As a result, the lead times for the CMM fixtures have been cut from more than a month to just hours.

Rob Thompson, sales manager at SYS Systems, said: “Engineers from Moog attended an Open House at our facility near Derby, and we offered to print an aircraft valve body — a 30hr print — to show the capabilities of Stratasys Fortus FDM machines.

“Through our 3-D printing knowledge, as well as the CMM expertise of our sister division OGP UK, we were able to help Moog optimise the printing of their fixtures.”

FDM sparked the 3-D printing revolution more than 20 years ago, with Stratasys leading the way in developing systems that appeal to large manufacturers, designers, engineers, educators and other professionals.

FDM is extremely cost-effective when producing hollow and/or honeycomb features, which are commonplace in fixture applications such as the ones required by Moog.

James Stuart-Young, Moog’s manufacturing engineering manager, said: “The ability to produce in-house has put us back in control of prioritising production to suit the demands of the customer programme.

“Build times vary due to the range of parts we are printing, but the time for the CMM fixtures is about 20hr. Fixtures that have cost us more than £2,000 in the past can now be made for a couple of hundred pounds.”