A breakthrough by researchers at the National Laser Centre (NLC) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) promises to make local aeronautics company Aerosud a world leader in niche aerostructural components manufacture within the next three years.

The CSIR and Aerosud are partners in a project called Aeroswift, funded by the Department of Science and Technology.
This project was formally launched on Friday in Pretoria. Aeroswift is aimed at developing locally a high-speed, large-volume, laser additive manufacturing system to make (initially) titanium parts for the global aerospace industry.

The breakthrough is that the CSIR NLC has already, in its proof of concept trials, achieved production speeds 8.3 times greater than currently available commercial selective laser melting machines. The proof of concept trials involved the production of small parts, no longer than 500 mm. With Aeroswift, the aim is to produce parts as big as 2 m x 0.5 m.

"The significance of this can hardly be exaggerated," Deputy Science and Technology Minister Derek Hanekom told Engineering News Online on Friday. "There's a huge opportunity here."

A key part of Aeroswift is the NLC's brand new 5 kW IPG single-fibre diode laser, that will form the heart of the new, pilot plant, laser additive manufacturing unit. "Now that we have the laser, we can develop the components that will go with it. We're going to build our own additive manufacturing system around our new laser. This is all designed, but needs to be constructed and tested," said CSIR National Laser materials and processing competency area manager Dr Federico Sciammarella.

The NLC hopes to have the complete system assembled and tested by the end of 2012 or in early 2013, at which point it will be dismantled and transferred to Aerosud's new Innovation and Training Centre 2 at the Centurion Aerospace Village, where it will be reassembled and operated.

"We are looking for serious cooperation with OEMs [original equipment manufacturers – the major global aerospace companies] to be supplying us with target parts," explained Aerosud GM Dr Paul Potgieter.

"That's what is happening. We're working with the OEMs to develop process qualification. This will probably take three years. Process qualification on new technology like this isn't easy, nor a trivial exercise. The new system will be operational here in 2013 as a pilot plant. Then it will take another year or two for actual process development and qualification approval. We hope to start full-scale production and start selling parts to the OEMs in 2015. Complex, high-value, low-volume parts in exotic materials (typically titanium) for aerospace – that's the niche we're aiming for."