Rolls Royce has announced plans to 3D print jet engines in future.
At the moment, engine parts are made by traditional manufacturing processes, and hampered by the limitations of the moulding process - and the prototyping process is slow, too, since the parts have to be designed and machined to order. So, like many other big companies, Rolls Royce is investigating how 3D printing might be able to change that.
To begin with, the company will be working on creating 3D printed brackets and fuel nozzles for its vehicles, but eventually, as the technology improves and engineers figure out more ways of using it, bigger and more crucial parts might be printed, too.
Dr Henner Wapenhans, head of technology at Rolls Royce, said the company was excited by the opportunities to design more creatively using 3D printing. "3D printing opens up new possibilities, new design space," he said. "Through the 3D printing process, you’re not constrained by having to get a tool to create a shape. You can create any shape you like."
So that's cool, right?
