Devolopment, Production and post-processing of a topology optimized aircraft bracket

Structural parts for aviation have very high demands on the development and production process. Therefore, the entire process must be considered in order to produce high-quality AM metal parts. In this case study, a conventional part was selected to be optimized for AM. The process presented includes component selection, design improvement with a novel approach for topology optimization based on the AMendate algorithm as basis of MSC Apex Generative Design,component production on a SLM 250 HL and post-processing including heat treatment and surface smoothing. With the topology optimization a weight reduction of ~60 % could be realized, whereby the stress distribution is more homogeneous. Furthermore, the challenges of support optimization and post-processing have to be addressed, in order to produce competitive parts.