ASME’s maiden conference on additive manufacturing in aerospace

Bengaluru hosted the first edition of the Aero Conference & Expo on additive manufacturing by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers(ASME), in partnership with Boeing, on December 8-9, 2022.

Additive manufacturing or 3D printing is a digital manufacturing process for construction of three-dimensional objects with material being added layer by layer.

“India is more of a technology follower, we are not creators. Perhaps, this particular technology (additive manufacturing) gives us the opportunity to show that we are capable of producing (technology) in India,” Dr V K Aatre, former scientific advisor to PMO, told DH on the sidelines of the event.

Additive manufacturing is vital for advanced manufacturing and serves as transformative technology for mass customisation of products through self-learning environments. It offers significant design flexibility and leads to time and cost efficiencies, especially in the aerospace and defence sectors.

Shedding light on India’s position in additive manufacturing for aerospace Dr Mellisa Orme, who is the vice president at Boeing Additive Manufacturing, said - “We’ve already started partnering with manufacturers here and additive manufacturing will grow big in India.”

Additive manufacturing is a more sustainable approach for aerospace manufacturing - it has been there in India and it will become big in the next few years, said Vineeth Vishni Prasad, application engineer at EOS GmbH.