Scenario Based Outlook of Additive Manufacturing Applications for the Aerospace Market

Additive Manufacturing (AM) has been growing rapidly with doubledigit growth rates during the last years and a rising trend towards end products. The further development of the technology highly depends on some critical success factors. For the future, it is vital to know which innovations will be necessary to satisfy the needs of industry. The impulsive forces will be those branches whose special characteristics are met by AM. Within the DMRC study “Thinking ahead the Future of Additive Manufacturing – Analysis of Promising Industries” (Gausemeier 2011), especially aircraft production, automotive production and the electronics industry have been identified as very promising to profit from the use of AM. Experts have selected these branches by assessing the prospective attractiveness of current application fields. Those branches are characterized by low quantities, complex part designs, lightweight design and/or high unit prices. For the aerospace industry, all four elements are of high relevance, which is why it has been a pioneer in applying and developing AM technology since the early beginning (Gausemeier 2011 and 2012).