3D printing to make parts for its passenger jet engines

• The new technique could allow quicker and cheaper production
• Head of technology strategy Dr Henner Wapenhans hailed the development
• He said it could cut the production time of complicated parts by months
• 3D printing technology is now available on the high street

The 3D printers, some which will fit on to a desktop, create three-dimensional objects rather than 2-dimensional images on a page.

Rolls-Royce head of technology strategy Dr Henner Wapenhans said: ‘One of the great advantages in the aerospace world is that some of these parts that we make have very long lead times, because of the tooling process.

And then it takes potentially 18 months to get the first part after placing an order - versus printing it, which could be done quite rapidly. Even if it takes a week to print, that’s still a lot faster

   

‘

3D printing opens up new possibilities. Through the 3D printing process, you’re not constrained by having to get a tool in to create a shape. You can create any shape you like.

‘There are studies that show one can create better lightweight structures, because you just take the analogy of what nature does and how bones are built up. And so things that are simple things like brackets can be made a lot lighter.’