Velo3D (www.velo3D.com) and Honeywell Aerospace, a leading user of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies with ‘extensive knowledge across various platforms and applications’, have announced a partnership to qualify the former’s Sapphire system as a “viable manufacturing platform for 3-D printing aircraft components”.

The Sapphire system was selected for its ability to build highly complex geometries without the need for support structures.

It will be in use at Honeywell Aerospace’s facility in Phoenix, Arizona. The qualification process is focused on Inconel — a nickel-based super-alloy that can be used for extreme-temperature applications.

Söeren Wiener, senior director of technology and advanced operations at Honeywell Aerospace, said: “We are qualifying Velo3D’s Sapphire system with the aim of printing geometries that can’t be fabricated on existing 3-D metal printers.

"The company’s technology will help us to develop new production-part applications, while also meeting our material requirements for qualification.

"We intend to qualify this equipment through repeatability testing in our production environment, including build and post-processing, to generate an acceptable set of material property data and qualification of flight hardware.”

Benny Buller, founder and CEO of Velo3D, said: “The ‘geometric enablement’ we can offer customers like Honeywell Aerospace allows them to print what used to be ‘impossible parts’ — and do so with a strong business case of improved cost and better quality.

"We are excited to partner with Honeywell to demonstrate that the 3-D printing of Inconel is a viable production method for a wider range of end-use applications.”