SAP and APWorks to bolster 3D printing in aerospace sector

Enterprising application software house SAP SE has landed itself in a new partnership with APWorks, a subsidiary of Airbus Defence and Space GmbH. The two companies plan to together accelerate and promote the adoption and standardization of industrial 3D printing within the aerospace and defense sectors. The ‘co-innovation agreement’ was announced at the Farnborough International Airshow that was being held between July 11-17 in Hampshire, England. In May this year, SAP SE entered into an agreement with UPS aiming to transform the ad-hoc world of industrial 3D printing into an on-demand manufacturing process from order through manufacturing and delivery. APWorks plans to tap these services to manufacture 3D printed components such as armrests and brackets, improve fuel efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions. “The ability to 3D print all the possible components of an A350 aircraft could reduce the weight of it by nearly a ton,” said Joachim Zettler, CEO, APWorks.

On-demand 3D printing cloud service from SAP can help us to develop our vision for distributed, on-demand production of aerospace components and still meet the high quality standards necessary to make the aircraft fly.

According to the German software solutions corporation, the partnership would also allow APWorks to better manage spare part orders in real time to deliver qualified products for safety-critical applications in aerospace and other industries. “Innovation in on-demand 3D printing is now revolutionizing traditional manufacturing. In the next few years 3D printing will be widely adopted across manufacturing industries. The aerospace and defense market will transform digitally to strive to achieve near-zero unplanned downtime on commercial flights as well as support high production turnaround at a lower cost,” said Torsten Welte, Global Head, Aerospace and Defense Industry, SAP.

What makes 3D printing most attractive in aerospace is the removal of many costs associated with traditional manufacturing like stocking inventory. Users are enabled to print the parts they need, as needed.

The co-innovation agreement between SAP and APWorks plans to address the following areas:

• Digitalization and simplification of the production part approval process
• Screening and validating parts for using the 3D printing process
• Designing and redesigning of a part or system to optimize for on-demand manufacturing and 3D printing
• Accelerating and standardizing the processes for certifying the manufacturing of parts by 3D printing firms
• Securing an on-demand budgetary price for manufacturing firms to evaluate 3D printing parts versus traditional manufacturing, including cost components such as tax and warehousing, using the SAP Product Lifecycle Costing solution
• Covering each stage from production floor to customer door — for seamless routing of the order