Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace Flight Applications

Additive manufacturing can provide many advantages to the future of space flight. Although it has been in use for plastic prototyping applications, it is only more recently that additive technologies have been investigated to produce metal and ceramic flight parts. This review paper presents some of the specific issues that arise for space flight applications, including materials selection, processing and postprocessing parameters, and the qualification process. With these concerns in mind, there are seven main applications in which additive manufacturing can provide a benefit. These applications include innovative design strategies that use the unique parameters of additive manufacturing, as well as some specific uses such as mass reduction or in situ production in space.