Old fighter jets can be recycled and used to create new ones

The fighter planes first flew in the 1970s were converted to fine powder and can be used for 3D printed components of the next generation aircraft of the British Royal Air Force (RAF). Experts say this is a more efficient way to make aircraft. It is less environmentally harmful and also solves the problem of procuring materials from countries under sanctions, such as Russia.

Robert Hyam Additive Manufacturing Solutions has developed technology to recycle important materials such as TI64. This is titanium with 6% aluminum and 4% vanadium. The UK Department of Defense has a large number of expensive, hard-to-sauce materials like TI64, but they are bound by outdated or broken aircraft and stored components.

The company was able to take turbine blades from Panavia Tornado, an aircraft used by the RAF from 1980 to 2019, and recycle them into nose cones of prototype engines that power the next generation of RAF fighters. Ta.

“The world is more expensive than before. Making products is more complicated and more expensive,” says Highham. “You can make them as effectively as possible.”

Highham says creating spherical particles from old parts is the key to printing high-quality new parts, as the jug-on particles may be stuck in a 3D printer. It’s not just grinding the metal, so the recycled components melt and then spray them onto a high-pressure jet of argon, where they are split into raindrop-shaped droplets. These droplets rotate the gas, turn into a spherical shape, drop out and solidify. “It’s a very similar process to how rain sparkles,” says Hyam.

The resulting powder can be supplied to a 3D printer. These machines essentially weld the powder into half the thickness of human hair, each layer down one by one, creating a new piece. “It’s a very simple microscope welding process. It’s not even more complicated,” says Higham.

In this first case, powder was used to 3D print nose cones for the Orpheus jet engine. Future Combat Air Systems (FCAS). The FCA includes a variety of aircraft with modular components, including the BAE Systems Tempest, a sixth generation fighter jet for the RAF.