Aerospace (Page 18)

With applications in multiple industries including medical, sustainable energy, and aerospace, nitinol is one of the most commonly used shape-memory alloys. To take full advantage of nitinol’s shape-memory characteristics, corrosion resistance, and super-elasticity, manufacturers must understand how to join this unique material without detrimentally affecting the properties that make it so attractive. EWI developed a...

Additive manufacturing (AM) processes empower manufacturers to build parts that were previously impossible to create using traditional subtractive machining methods. While laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) is well-developed and offers high levels of accuracy, it is better-suited to small components. As an alternative, laser directed energy deposition (L-DED) combines a laser and a material feed...

Laser ultrasonic testing (LUT) is a powerful inspection technology capable of detecting flaws such as cracks and delaminations while simultaneously determining material density and elastic properties. While LUT has traditionally been used for aerospace applications and with structural composites, advances in the technology now make it well-suited to an array of other industry applications. A...