Press Blogs

HP and Fast Radius Innovate Advancements in Aircraft Maintenance for Satair

HP, Fast Radius and Satair collaborate to expedite aircraft maintenance and increase safety by 3D printing new tooling

March 16, 2020

News highlights:            

  • HP and Fast Radius collaborate to innovate aircraft maintenance for global aerospace leader Satair
  • Powered by HP’s full color Jet Fusion 3D printing platform, leading partners like Fast Radius embrace HP to help their end customers succeed
  • HP technology enables production aircraft maintenance tooling in vibrant colors to improve safety by ensuring that tools are not left behind after use

 

Palo Alto, Calif. (March 16, 2020): Today HP showcased a new collaboration with Fast Radius to innovate aircraft maintenance for global aerospace leaders like Satair. Leveraging HP’s innovative color 3D printing technology to advance safety and functionality, HP and Fast Radius are enabling leaders like Satair to continually improve best practices and create new solutions to expedite aircraft maintenance.

Satair, an Airbus services company, serves customers in the global aerospace value chain by delivering parts management, distribution and support solutions. Anticipating individual customer needs, Satair approached Fast Radius, a one-stop multi-process manufacturing partner that helps customers innovate the way they design, make, and fulfill products and member of HP’s Digital Manufacturing Network, with a vision to reduce flight delays by transforming the speed and sustainability of aircraft maintenance tool delivery.

Turning to HP’s innovative color 3D printing technology, Satair was able to produce industry-compliant, full color spectrum 3D printed tools in vibrant red and orange that not only improved safety by ensuring that tools were not left behind after use, but reduced the total part numbers in the bill of materials, improved design robustness and enabled the integration of new functionalities. In total, HP and Fast Radius worked together to redesign and produce three new tools for Satair: GAGS Tool Pads, Pintle Bearing Alignment Tools, and Flap Zero Locking Tools—click here to view the case study.

HP delivers the industry’s most advanced 3D printing solutions helping customers reinvent their design and manufacturing. The HP Jet Fusion 580 Color 3D Printer was specifically selected for this application due to a number of advantages, including:

  • Mechanical Properties and Design Time Acceleration: In addition to full spectrum color, HP 3D printing enables production of full color parts with optimal mechanical properties and allows for multiple design iterations in the same time it would normally take to print a single part, which significantly cut down on the development time.
  • Material Capability: Because of the harsh environments these tools would need to endure, the material selected was HP 3D High Reusability PA 12 — an engineering-grade thermoplastic with excellent chemical resistance to oils, greases, aliphatic hydrocarbons and alkalies.
  • Increased Design Freedom: HP color 3D printing also provides new ways to convey information, such as company logos, part numbers, serial numbers or even scannable QR codes printed directly on to the tool.

 

About HP
HP Inc. creates technology that makes life better for everyone, everywhere. Through our portfolio of personal systems, printers, and 3D printing solutions, we engineer experiences that amaze. More information about HP Inc. is available at http://www.hp.com/go/3Dprinting


Jennifer Baumgartner, HP Inc.