The Swissloop students tasked with pressure cabin development partnered with Replique, an innovative German contract manufacturing platform and sponsor, who suggested 3D printed tooling for quick turnaround cost efficiency. Replique turned to 3D Systems, whose Application Innovation Group collaborated with the Swissloop team to deliver custom tooling using an EXT 1070 Titan Pellet printer and CF-ABS material.
The machined epoxy tooling blocks traditionally used for high-temperature carbon fiber layup are expensive, heavy, and prone to damage after repeated use. Swissloop instead chose a two-step process, first using the 3D printed layup tool with a room-temperature dry-fiber vacuum infusion process to create an autoclavable, light weight carbon fiber mold, then using that mold to layup the high temperature prepreg carbon fiber for the final parts.
Compared to traditional tooling, the additive-hybrid approach reduced cost, weight, and waste while improving durability and scalability.
In this session, Elias Attallah, Mechanical Engineering Student, ETH Zurich, will be joined by André Metzger, Technical Sales Manager and Applications Engineer, 3D Systems to showcase how additive manufacturing can accelerate development cycles and enhance production process innovation in next-gen transportation systems.
Speakers:
Elias Attallah, Mechanical Engineering Student, Swissloop/ETH Zurich
Andre Metzger, Technical Sales Manager & Applications Engineer, 3D Systems