Print Me Out An Airplane

The technology of 3D printing is finally beginning to mature. In its infancy, you could only print out fragile plastic toys. Now, printing out metal parts for airplanes is about to become reality.

Near Bristol, England, Innovation Works is making a small part for an Airbus A380 airliner. Their printers use software that works out where the parts need to bear loads and places material just in those areas, halving the weight of the complete part without sacrificing strength. 3-D printers can make complex shapes that can't be manufactured with conventional techniques. That saves energy, metal, and money. The complex, curving forms that result can't be cast in a mold or carved out of a larger block even with the most advanced computer-controlled tools, but they can be printed in a succession of layers tens of micrometers thick.

Before and after: Two versions of a hinge for a jet-engine cover illustrate the capabilities of 3-D printing. The one in the background is made with conventional manufacturing methods. The printed shape in the foreground weighs half as much.

Here's a slide show about the process.