Which Machining Advancements Are Driving Innovation in Aerospace Design

With new announcements of innovation in aerospace design filling the headlines daily, it’s not surprising that the world of machining and manufacturing has grown along with it. Only with constant machining advancements, the steady stream of innovation in aerospace design can continue. Some innovations are not directly driven by machining upgrades, but they do rely on higher grade machining processes to adapt to aerospace uses. Others are directly the result of a specific innovation in aerospace design machining equipment.

Whether you’re a subcontractor offering machining and tooling services to the industry or a manufacturer looking for a new edge, you need to know about these recent developments of innovation in aerospace design.

Cloud-Based Machining Coordination

With today’s passenger jets requiring nearly as much advanced navigation equipment as your average private sector space rocket, design and manufacturing requires seamless communication and collaboration between dozens of different parties. The expansion of cloud-based software targeted directly to aerospace designers and subcontractors is one innovation in aerospace design that has been essential to all of the biggest names in the business. This innovation in aerospace design allows the designers to tweak a small detail on a wireframe and have the machining subcontractors immediately updated on the changes. This reduces mistakes, prevents waste, and simplifies the relationships between all the parties responsible for aerospace design and manufacturing.

This innovation in aerospace design required the cloud to develop first since it requires all the design files and other relevant information to receive and distribute updates through a centralized system. Cloud innovation in aerospace design will further increase the speed of new developments and breakthroughs by simplifying collaboration across the machining and design sectors of the industry.

Touch-Screen Innovation in Aerospace Design

Touchscreens have proliferated through consumer electronics far faster than through recent innovation in aerospace design. But touch-screen controls are finally making their way to passenger and cargo planes, along with potential usage in upcoming NASA and private rocket designs. Machining for control panels and their bracketing is rapidly adapting to fit the needs of this recent innovation in aerospace design.

Reducing the large machined control panels required in the cockpits of former jets and planes frees up space for other features, but it also requires finer machining to support and hold the touchscreens driving innovation in aerospace design. Rapid prototyping, such as metal 3D printing, is also necessary to help model how these touchscreens are best integrated into each cabin or cockpit.

Self-Healing Materials and Equipment

When it comes to ultra-efficient hybrid airships and other cutting edge ideas for innovation in aerospace design, advanced materials are necessary to overcome the physical challenges of leaving the stratosphere or dealing with puncture risks. Self-healing materials and nanoparticle-based products are finding new uses in the aerospace industry each day, and machining is improving along with the new materials to turn them into useful components.

Many of these unique composite materials creating innovation in aerospace design require molding, machining, and finish treatments all before a single part is ready for actual uses. Composite and self-healing products are behind many of the most exciting innovation in aerospace design, so if you’re a subcontractor providing machining services to the industry, prepare to expand your equipment to handle these new and unusual materials.

Finer Results from Advanced Alloys to Create Innovation in Aerospace Design

Innovation in aerospace design starts with new products capable of better handling the challenges of air and space flight. But until machining catches up with each new innovation in aerospace design, new parts and products can’t emerge from the drawing board and into reality. Advanced titanium, aluminum, and nickel alloys aren’t particularly new themselves, but the innovation in aerospace design to expand their usage developed primarily in the last few years. These new machining and manufacturing services include wire electrical discharge machining, cleaner and deeper cuts in titanium part machining, and many other techniques of innovation in aerospace design.

Metal Prototyping for Faster Innovation in Aerospace Design

Finally, the fine tuning of metal 3D printing services is also creating innovation in aerospace design by speeding up and cutting costs for the prototyping stage. Rapid prototyping was once limited to plastic 3D printing techniques, but high-speed machining and metal printing result in more useful prototypes for innovation in aerospace design.

These parts can be used directly for molding and tooling design so manufacturing and machining begins with fewer delays. Soon, 3D printing may be used for manufacturing the latest innovation in aerospace design as well.

You can find all of these cutting edge services and more through the European Subcontractor Network. Our listings will connect you with the help you need to develop your own innovation in aerospace design. Whether you need machining, design, manufacturing, or any other subcontracted service, you can find it all here at the European Subcontracting Network.