This presentation will explore the topic of certification for commercial aircraft parts. The current practice involves "point design." This is expensive and very restrictive. The industry is moving towards developing an AM material properties database for both metal and polymer parts.
Indeed, this would greatly facilitate adoption and the ability to generate design allowables. But what are the major inhibitors to this, and to part certification, in general?
In the process of answering these two fundamental questions, this presentation will also address questions such as: What are the different types of FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) part certifications, and does this vary materially from EASA (Europe Aviation Safety Administration) and other agencies (e.g. US Air Force and NASA)? What metadata are required to obtain certification? What other mechanisms are available to streamline part certification? Does the existence of part families meaningfully accelerate this process? Is certification by process qualification and P-V (power-velocity) mapping feasible?
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the fundamental steps of the FAA part certification process
- Interpret the basis for design allowables (vs bulk-material allowables) which provides the foundation for certification
- Explain the current state of the industry for process qualification
