J-20 5th Gen Fighter Thread VIII

[sunnymaxi]

Wonder if this implies that the frame and bulkheads are actually all 3D printed now.

this news is from June, 2025..

Two metal 3D printing companies won a 148.9 million yuan project contract with Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group!

two leading additive manufacturing companies in China, XXX and XXX Technologies, jointly won the bid for the laser selective melting forming equipment procurement project of Chengdu Aircraft Industry (Group) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Chengfei"), with a total bid amount of 148.9 million yuan.

The equipment that won the bid represents the pinnacle of domestic metal 3D printing technology, directly targeting the manufacturing bottlenecks of large aerospace structural components.

 

[tphuang]

Wonder if this implies that the frame and bulkheads are actually all 3D printed now.

3D printing makes sense for certain components, but I'm not sure the metals printer are good at printing large sections of fuselage. There is still just a lot of forging/casting + cutting/grinding + welding going on in all these modern plants.

 

[PeoplesPoster]

3D printing makes sense for certain components, but I'm not sure the metals printer are good at printing large sections of fuselage. There is still just a lot of forging/casting + cutting/grinding + welding going on in all these modern plants.

From previous reports they were using large scale spray and wire DED systems to print fuselage cross section. Parts are rough and require final machining but are fully dense and produced relatively quicklu. Very different from laser powder bed based technologies used for smaller more intricate components.

 

[siegecrossbow]

Wonder if this implies that the frame and bulkheads are actually all 3D printed now.

Weight saving, strengthened structure, but most importantly immense cost savings in titanium processing. Traditional method requires carving the whole bulkhead from a solid block of titanium alloy and what is cut out cannot be melted and reused.

 

[latenlazy]

3D printing makes sense for certain components, but I'm not sure the metals printer are good at printing large sections of fuselage. There is still just a lot of forging/casting + cutting/grinding + welding going on in all these modern plants.

The story for the J-35 is supposedly that its entire complement of bulkheads are 3D printed and this capability was first demonstrated back in the mid 2010s so if that’s still the case I have to imagine they could have already scaled that process to J-20 sized bulkheads too.

Weight saving, strengthened structure, but most importantly immense cost savings in titanium processing. Traditional method requires carving the whole bulkhead from a solid block of titanium alloy and what is cut out cannot be melted and reused.

What I was thinking about was more that using 3D printing for primary frame pieces could help streamline the process design for automated production and assembly because the primary frame parts would be coming out of a modularized small footprint fabricator rather than an entirely separate metalworking shop that would have to ship finished frame pieces to the assembly line.

 

[doggydogdo]

From South China Morning Post

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2054244616548000204

the article is based of this video so it's likely credible

 

[Blitzo]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2054244616548000204

the article is based of this video so it's likely credible

Why do you think that article is based off that video? That is to say, what do you think the video actually shows?

Also, why do you think that twitter account writes accurate posts/interpretations to begin with?

 

[henrik]

The story for the J-35 is supposedly that its entire complement of bulkheads are 3D printed and this capability was first demonstrated back in the mid 2010s so if that’s still the case I have to imagine they could have already scaled that process to J-20 sized bulkheads too.


What I was thinking about was more that using 3D printing for primary frame pieces could help streamline the process design for automated production and assembly because the primary frame parts would be coming out of a modularized small footprint fabricator rather than an entirely separate metalworking shop that would have to ship finished frame pieces to the assembly line.

Are components made with 3d printing strong enough? You have these printing machines spewing out stuff in the process. But do these particles stick together strongly?

 

[latenlazy]

Are components made with 3d printing strong enough? You have these printing machines spewing out stuff in the process. But do these particles stick together strongly?

Tensile and especially fatigue strength for 3D printed metal parts have come a long way over the last decade. Maybe I'll dig up some papers on this later but in general there are all sort of techniques today to get around the commonly cited deficiencies for this manufacturing process. There's even work being done now on 3D printed single crystal nickel components.

 

[siegecrossbow]

The story for the J-35 is supposedly that its entire complement of bulkheads are 3D printed and this capability was first demonstrated back in the mid 2010s so if that’s still the case I have to imagine they could have already scaled that process to J-20 sized bulkheads too.


What I was thinking about was more that using 3D printing for primary frame pieces could help streamline the process design for automated production and assembly because the primary frame parts would be coming out of a modularized small footprint fabricator rather than an entirely separate metalworking shop that would have to ship finished frame pieces to the assembly line.

Traditional process is already automated. It is done with CNC machine and both China and the U.S. actually import from Switzerland for fifth gen manufacturing.