EOS to exhibit laser-sintered micro-aircraft parts at AUVSI 2009

Aug. 5, 2009

If anyone wishes to see leading-edge laser-sintering work, just go to the 2009 Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) Unmanned Systems North America conference at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center (Washington, D.C., August 10 to 13) and show up at the booth (#250) for EOS GmbH Electro Optical Systems (Novi, MI).

John Wallace

The company will be displaying parts made by their EOSINT P line of plastics laser-sintering systems, as well as a range of parts in different metals from the EOSINT M 270. Udo Behrendt, key account manager Aerospace at EOS, will be at the booth to answer questions and offer technical information. He has been responsible for business development in the civil aircraft, defense, and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) industries.

"Weight optimization, different applications, and flexibility in payload are critical to the design of UAVs," Behrendt says. "The aircraft industry also primarily uses low-volume components. Laser-sintering technology enables companies to build highly integrated and very complex hardware directly from electronic data, eliminating tooling and other secondary operations, in production lots ranging from one part to several thousands."

"Plastics laser-sintering enabled us to manufacture aircraft components for a micro air vehicle as a cost-effective substitute for carbon-fiber parts," says Jim Williams, president of Paramount PDS (Langhorne, PA), a customer of EOS. "The parts have already been tested in flight and are in production."

Laser-sintering's capabilities for mass customization and building of intricate shapes also benefit the broader aerospace market. EOS customers have used such direct manufacturing methods to create components for commercial and defense aircraft. EOS is also a founding partner of the Direct Manufacturing Research Center (DMRC) at the University of Paderborn (Germany), a consortium that includes such companies as Boeing, Evonik and Siemens. The DMRC was founded to advance direct manufacturing technologies and materials for aerospace and other industries.

For more information about the AUVSI conference, go to http://symposium.auvsi.org/attendees/registrationinfo.php

About the Author

John Wallace | Senior Technical Editor (1998-2022)

John Wallace was with Laser Focus World for nearly 25 years, retiring in late June 2022. He obtained a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and physics at Rutgers University and a master's in optical engineering at the University of Rochester. Before becoming an editor, John worked as an engineer at RCA, Exxon, Eastman Kodak, and GCA Corporation.