Quote Originally Posted by Balazs91 View Post
Thanks for your reply!
It's not practical because of money reasons? What would you recommend instead? Assembly from smaller pieces?
Well, 3D printing in one go would mean supports here and there : lots of waste.

3D printing is not fast compared to other production means, it's just fast for the 1st item as compared to a full industrialisation.

Also, the profile would be weak parallel to the main printing plane : an assembly would be stronger because the components could have mixed directions.

What's important in an aircraft is early failure detection : you can inspect metal assemblies for cracks, you can do tapping composite components for delamination detection. The whole point is : the detection and the failure are HOURS or DAYS apart, leaving you ample margin for safe operations. For a plastic 3D printed part you'd need to prove that the layer delamination can be contained for hours after being detectable. Good luck with that if it's all printed in one go.

If it's printed in one go, you can't just swap a subcomponent for a repair : not practical.

Shall I go on ?

The most practical use of 3D printing in this case would be to use it to manufacture molds for composites. I've seen some machined from LAB : comparatively quite expensive and not much reusable.