Press release eos and airbus group innovations team on aerospace sustainability study for industrial 3 d printing

1. EOS and Airbus Group Innovations Team on Aerospace Sustainability Study
for Industrial 3D Printing
The companies benchmark eco-design attributes of investment casting and DMLS™
Additive Manufacturing (AM)
Novi, Mich., February 4, 2014— EOS, technology and market-leader for design-driven,
integrated e-manufacturing solutions in the Additive Manufacturing (AM) sector, has collaborated
with Airbus Group Innovations (previously EADS Innovation Works), of Filton, Bristol to
complete an environmental lifecycle comparison of two key production technologies, rapid
investment casting and Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS™).
The Airbus Group Innovations-EOS eco-assessment, applied to an Airbus A320 nacelle hinge
bracket (a highly standardized part), strove to include detailed aspects of the overall lifecycle: from
the supplier of the raw powder metal, to the equipment manufacturer (EOS), and to the end-user
(Airbus Group Innovations). Adapted from Airbus’ streamlined lifecycle assessment (SLCA) and
ISO 14040 series requirements data, the testing will serve as the basis for continued “Cradle-to-
Cradle” study into other aerospace parts, processes and end-of-life strategies.
“We have worked in a bold, new collaboration with Airbus Group Innovations on integrating
business and ecological sustainability from sourcing through to product development,” said Nicola
Knoch, environmental and sustainability consultant to EOS. “There is now a valuable, holistic
baseline established on our technology regarding the measurable costs, benefits and impacts of
DMLS. This sets the groundwork for future technology developments in Additive Manufacturing
and further studies.”
As a first step, the SLCA was conducted on a generic bracket benchmarking the DMLS process
with a conventional casting process used as the baseline. Comparing the lifecycle of a steel bracket
(casting process) with the lifecycle of a design-optimized titanium bracket (DMLS):
 The use phase has by far the biggest impact in terms of energy consumption and CO2
emissions over the whole lifecycle of the bracket.
 CO2 emissions over the whole lifecycle of the nacelle hinges were reduced by nearly 40 percent
via weight saving that resulted from an optimized geometry, which is enabled by the design
freedom offered by the DMLS process and the use of titanium.
 Most significantly, using DMLS to build the hinge may reduce the weight per plane by 10
kilograms, a noteworthy saving when looking at industry “buy-to-fly” ratios.
The second phase of the analysis focused on the manufacturing process for the design-optimized
bracket using titanium as an ideal, common material—and, this time, benchmarking the
manufacturing process of investment casting against that of DMLS via the EOSINT M 280 system:
 The total energy consumption for creating the initial raw powder metal, then producing the
bracket in DMLS, was slightly smaller than the equivalent cast process steps (with the
higher energy use of DMLS limited to the melt and chill cycle of its manufacturing profile
and offset at the same time by a significantly reduced build time). Casting in this
comparison was burdened with the furnace operation of burning an SLA
(stereolithography) epoxy model, which uses considerable energy and generates
greenhouse gases.

2.  The DMLS process itself used only the material actually needed to make the part—thereby
eliminating waste from secondary machining and reducing consumption of titanium by 25
percent over the cast application.
“DMLS has demonstrated a number of benefits, as it can support the optimization of design and
enable subsequent manufacture in low-volume production,” said Jon Meyer, Additive Layer
Manufacturing Research Team Leader, in his final report. “In general, the joint study revealed that
DMLS has the potential to build light, sustainable parts with due regard for the company’s C02
footprint.”
For more information on the Airbus Group Innovations-EOS study and its goals, parameters and
results go to: http://www.eos.info/press/customer_case_studies/eads or http://tinyurl.com/l2hsgl3.
About EOS
Founded in 1989 and headquartered in Germany, EOS is the technology and market leader for
design-driven, integrated e-Manufacturing solutions for Additive Manufacturing (AM), an
industrial 3D printing process. EOS offers a modular solution portfolio including systems,
software, materials and material development as well as services (maintenance, training, specific
application consulting and support). As an industrial manufacturing process it allows the fast and
flexible production of high-end parts based on 3D CAD data at a repeatable industry level of
quality. As a disruptive technology it paves the way for a paradigm shift in product design and
manufacturing. It accelerates product development, offers freedom of design, optimizes part
structures, and enables lattice structures as well as functional integration. As such, it creates
significant competitive advantages for its customers. For more information please visit
www.eos.info.
Contacts
Parker Group (editorial US)
Miles Parker
Phone: +1 401 272 1510
e-mail: mparker@parkergroup.com
EOS-Electro Optical Systems, GmbH
Claudia Jordan
Public Relations Specialist
Phone: +011 49 (0) 89 893 36 x2134
e-mail: claudia.jordan@eos.info
EOS of North America, Inc.
Electro Optical Systems
Jessica Nehro
Field Marketing Manager
Phone: +1 248 306 0143 x8104

3. e-mail: jessica.nehro@eos.info
Note to Editors:
As of the 1st
January 2014, Airbus Group Innovations became the new name of EADS Innovation
Works. For reasons of timing, the report, compiled prior to this rebranding refers throughout to
EADS Innovation Works. More information on the brand change here: http://www.airbus-
group.com/airbusgroup/int/en/news/press.20140102_airbusgroup_new_brand.html
Figure 1: Conventional design of the steel cast bracket (upper left) that
was environmentally assessed against the corresponding topology-optimized
design of the EOS titanium AM-made bracket (lower right corner). Source: Airbus Group
Innovations.

4. Figure 2: Waste produced as weighted by the “embodied” energy for each
process (in kWh). This way of presenting results conveys a stronger and
improved idea of the embodied cost of the material, non-organic wastes
for each alternative process, based upon their ability to be recovered either
by re-use or recycling. Source: Airbus Group Innovations.
Figure 3: Emissions of carbon dioxide through the static (i.e., manufacturing)
phases of the different design options (in kg CO2 eq.) Source: Airbus Group Innovations.