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3D Printing for
Aerospace

Thanks to impressively complex designs, ceramic casting cores printed using Lithoz LCM technology open up completely new possibilities in turbine design. 3D printing for aerospace successfully counter-acts the usual enormous cost pressures associated in this field.

Our Recommendation

CeraFab S65

LithaCore

Silica-based

LithaNit

Silicon Nitride

LithaCore

Silica-based

LithaNit

Silicon Nitride
With LCM 3D printers, development cycles can be considerably shortened, resulting in a much faster time-to-market. The time-consuming production of expensive molds is no longer necessary and the entire process is sped-up.

“Lithoz technology has enabled us to 3D print ceramic molds that meet the high demands of the investment casting process. In the future, this will make it possible to produce components that seem almost inconceivable today.”

Dr. Holger Reichenbächer, STV. GF Schubert & Salzer Feinguss GmbH

Applications

RF filter and resonator from dielectric ceramics

RF filters are crucial electronic circuits that enhance signal quality and minimize interference in communication systems like satellite communication, radar, and avionics. Ceramic 3D printing allows for the creation of highly-engineered resonators with a wide range of shapes, orders, and bandwidths that can be incorporated into a single component, optimizing performance, reliability, and durability.

Such RF filters play a critical role in ensuring reliable and accurate communications in high-frequency bands. Due to the harsh environmental conditions that they must withstand, these filters have to be highly performing and meet stringent reliability and performance requirements. The desirable material properties of ceramics make them perfectly suited to meet these requirements, securing longevity and excellent stability over temperature and time while also easily enabling the miniaturization of these filters to reduce weight – a successful key formula in aerospace applications.

Miniaturized silicon nitride aerospike nozzle

To keep track with the development of ever more efficient rocket engines, nozzle designs have also undergone a significant evolution. In contrast to conventional bell-like nozzle designs, the aerospike nozzle uses a spike-shaped body to direct gas flow. This unique open geometry enables passive pressure adaption to the ambient air. Thus, aerospike nozzles always operate under optimal exhaust conditions.

Modern 3D printing methods now allow manufacturing complex structures which are necessary for cooling within the nozzle. To meet further thermal control requirements, the LCM process offers a method to take advantage of the excellent thermal properties of ceramics, such as those of silicon nitride. This new promising method raises high hopes for laying the cornerstone of future propulsion technology.

3D-printed ceramic cores for superalloy aircraft turbine blades

Increasingly more stringent requirements for environmentally friendly and fuel-efficient aircraft engines call for more innovative turbines, which naturally require greatly improved cooling. With Lithoz's LCM technology, such functional and efficient components can finally be produced.

In addition to drastically reducing development time and thus speeding up time-to-market, it is possible to enable ever shorter development cycles, as the 3D printing of complex designed ceramic cores eliminates the need for expensive molds and lengthy changeovers. This efficiency makes LCM the perfect choice when it comes to producing innovative cast cores for the aerospace industry.

Ceramic cores for industrial gas turbines

The requirements for producing new designs of multi-bladed, complex and narrow cores go far beyond the limits of known conventional. The high-precision CeraFab 3D printing systems offer a tool-free solution that, thanks to the design freedom of additive manufacturing, enables the production of previously unachievable complex designs.

Lithoz's LCM technology can produce casting cores up to 500 mm in size. Lithoz offers a reliable, scalable and efficient solution that can perfectly map all requirements from prototyping to the production of large cores for industrial gas turbines.

Multi-layered casting core models

These multi-layered casting cores feature innovative, complex inner structures for optimized heat management. Inspired by organic patterns found in nature, the forms are mathematically generated to deduct heat in the most efficient way by delivering the biggest possible surface area. These structures cannot be realized by traditional investment casting methods and were instead achieved using LCM technology at the IKTS Fraunhofer Institute in Dresden. To avoid mass piling, casting cores on average have a wall thickness of 1.5 – 2 mm. The 3D-printed component shown here has a wall thickness of < 1mm.

Printed with LithaCore material, these multi-layered components will show significant performance improvement even under extreme chemical and thermal conditions. They open up completely new opportunities of realizing highly intricate 3D-printed heat exchanger structures to be employed in traditional investment casting – all thanks to the unique possibilities created by our ultra-precise LCM technology.

Your challenge,
our all-in-one solution

Drucker Frontal CeraFab S65
Recommended printer

CeraFab System S65

Ultimate precision meets functional scalability.
The world's number one for the 3D series production of complex high-performance ceramics in aerospace.

Recommended Material

LithaCore

Silica-based

Our casting core material, perfect for professionals, is precisely tuned to produce accurate ceramic cores with fine details and the highest of precision. A typical application is the single crystal casting of turbine blades.

Recommended Material

LithaNit

Silicon nitride

Our specialist for extreme conditions. This flexible slurry, based on beta-SiAlON ceramic, can withstand even the harshest conditions thanks to its high strength, toughness, thermal shock resistance and chemical resistance to corrosion.

are you ready to ignite the next stage of turbine design?
Contact us today!
Something different in mind? Discover our other 3D printers!
CeraFab Lab L30
Our Materials at a Glance

Silicon nitride

Silica-based

Tricalcium phosphate

Hydroxylapatite

Contact our Experts
Our experts will be happy to advise you on all questions relating to your applications in aerospace.