Additive Manufacturing Expands Into Aerospace and Marine Production

People's Daily reports that additive manufacturing is demonstrating broad application prospects across frontier domains including aerospace, ocean engineering, nuclear engineering, electronic information, and biomedicine. In aerospace, three-dimensional printing serves as an important process for critical components including drones, rocket engines, and satellite brackets. Sino-Euro Materials Technologies utilized proprietary titanium alloy powder and topological optimization inspired by bird bones and insect wings to form integrated wing support structures, reducing weight by 40% and increasing endurance by 26%. Additionally, the SpaceX Raptor engine used additive manufacturing to consolidate hundreds of parts into a small number, significantly lowering manufacturing costs. Within marine engineering, additive manufacturing produces complex parts like ship propellers and hull structures to shorten shipbuilding timelines. The Beijing Institute of Technology Chongqing Innovation Center applied electric arc additive technology to manufacture ship propellers, cutting delivery times from approximately 3 months under casting to 10 days. In nuclear engineering, three-dimensional printing fabricates reactor core components, fuel elements, and heat exchangers with intricate internal structures to bolster reactor safety. United States startup Ampera utilized additive techniques to produce a full-scale nuclear reactor module containing a silicon carbide reactor core and pressure vessel, designed to operate without mid-term refueling or frequent maintenance and expected to run continuously for 30 years.