Northrop Grumman is integrating additive manufacturing throughout its area programs to scale back lead instances, decrease prices, and improve the design flexibility of licensed components.
On the current Additive Manufacturing Benefit Aerospace (AMAA) 2025 convention, Andrew Thompson revealed that Northrop 3D prints a whole lot of hundreds of components yearly. The worldwide aerospace, area, and protection producer is actively transitioning from prototyping to producing end-use, flight-ready parts.
Thompson, who leads Northrop Grumman’s Additive Manufacturing Middle of Excellence (CoE), touched on the corporate’s proprietary steady composite 3D printing expertise. He additionally highlighted cutting-edge 3D printed RF antennas, which improve the efficiency of satellites in orbit.
Northrop’s AM skilled defined that 3D printing can cut back lead instances by as much as 90% for sure parts, in comparison with conventional forging and casting strategies. The Virginia-based firm additionally sees important price financial savings, as much as 70% general, and as a lot as 90% for topology-optimised honeycomb panels.
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Northrop fabricates each metallic and composite components utilizing EBM, LPBF, DED, WAAM, SLS, and its Scalable Composite Robotic Additive Manufacturing Carbon/Carbon (SCRAM C/C) expertise.
In his presentation, Thompson emphasised that superior 3D printers and novel supplies are meaningless if the ultimate half doesn’t add worth or can’t be licensed. Due to this fact, he argued, the core challenges lie in design, testing, and inspection, noting that “In the event you don’t have these issues, you may’t make the merchandise.”
Thompson famous that high quality management nonetheless accounts for almost half the price of every 3D printed half. Growing materials allowables for spaceflight, he added, can take as much as 18 months and price hundreds of thousands of {dollars}.
From its facility in Elkton, Maryland, Northrop’s additive manufacturing CoE is working to deal with these challenges and assist form the way forward for 3D printing in area functions.
Steel 3D printing at Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman has a protracted historical past with additive manufacturing, first adopting the expertise within the Nineties for plastic tooling functions. Right now, the U.S. aerospace agency leverages metals and polymer 3D printing to provide end-use components for satellites, launch automobiles, payloads, hypersonics, missile protection, and floor programs.
Northrop’s AM technique for area programs is break up between three distinct classes: small metals, massive metals, and composites. The agency conducts engineering in-house and outsources manufacturing to “small companies and revolutionary suppliers,” Thompson defined. “We’re not solely leveraging the information that will get constructed out, however we’re serving to help the availability base.”
For small metals, Northrop makes use of laser powder mattress fusion (LPBF) and electron beam melting (EBM). Titanium is the corporate’s “workhorse” feedstock for EBM, used primarily to provide area buildings and subsystems. The corporate certified the fabric in 2017, with Northrop flying its first titanium 3D printed half in 2019.
Thompson emphasised the design freedom and time financial savings enabled by titanium EBM additive manufacturing. He pointed to 1 half that initially had a 200-day lead time. After being redesigned for additive manufacturing utilizing topology optimization, it was 3D printed and delivered in just some weeks. The change to 3D printing additionally allowed Northrop to beat design challenges that had been not possible to unravel utilizing standard manufacturing strategies.
Aluminum alloys, notably AlSi10Mg, are additionally a key focus, being 3D printed solely utilizing LPBF expertise. Sooner or later, Northrop will shift to utilizing CP1, an aluminum alloy developed by Constellium particularly for metallic additive manufacturing. CP1 guarantees double {the electrical} and thermal conductivity, providing potential in structural and thermal functions.
Cobalt-nickel alloys are additionally used for high-temperature functions within the small metallic phase. Additionally produced utilizing LPBF, these supplies are well-suited for payloads and spacecraft environments the place tight management over thermal enlargement is important.
Copper is one other materials gaining consideration, because of its thermal efficiency. Northrop is working carefully with Fabric8Labs, a San Diego startup recognized for high-resolution copper 3D printing of electronics and thermal functions.
Within the massive metallic area, cast rings and mandrels can take 12 to 24 months to supply utilizing conventional strategies. To speed up procurement, Northrop has turned to large-scale metallic 3D printing. This consists of wire directed vitality deposition (DED), powder DED, wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM), Laser Wire Additive Manufacturing, and Additive Friction Stir Deposition (AFSD).
For these processes, Northrop prioritizes three main metallic alloys. The primary is Ti-6Al-4V, which the corporate makes use of throughout its AFSD, wire-fed, and powder-fed processes. Subsequent is aluminum. Northrop is prioritizing aluminum 7050 and 7075 for AFSD, with laser wire growth additionally underway. Each titanium and aluminum supplies are used to 3D print launch automobiles, area automobiles, motors, and payload merchandise.
Thirdly, Steels are primarily utilized in WAAM and DED tooling functions. Thompson famous that that is notably advantageous within the manufacturing of metallic mandrels, which maintain workpieces in place throughout machining.
Northrop Grumman’s SCRAM C/C expertise
Northrop’s in-house SCRAM C/C expertise sits on the coronary heart of its polymer and composite 3D printing technique. The system makes use of a robotic arm with interchangeable software heads. It leverages steady fiber-reinforced thermoplastics to provide high-temperature composite parts.
Importantly, SCRAM C/C can 3D print temperature-resistant supplies that received’t erode, soften, or deform in excessive environments. These polymer components are additionally lighter than metallic, lowering the burden of hypersonic programs and boosting efficiency. “The design choices for it are virtually limitless,” defined Thompson, who known as SCRAM C/C a “manufacturing unit in a field for composite buildings.”
Northrop is utilizing SCRAM C/C to 3D print complicated, high-strength buildings for area functions, enabling what Thompson known as “some fairly loopy designs.”
In a single case, a single print job used three printhead modules. One 3D printed a troublesome outer layer of steady fiber skins, one other constructed a light-weight honeycomb core, and a 3rd created water-soluble help tooling, producing your complete composite half in a single shot
Thompson’s firm can also be exploring superior polymer supplies, together with ESD-safe thermoplastics like ESD PEEK and Antero PEKK from 3D printer producer Stratasys. “We’re beginning to rethink how plastics can be utilized in a spacecraft,” Thompson stated. He famous that these materials properties have beforehand been restricted by the restrictions of injection molding for high-mix, low-volume manufacturing.
Northrop’s additive manufacturing benefit for area functions
Thompson revealed that Northrop’s additive manufacturing operations are more and more focusing on high-value, end-use structural merchandise. These vary from DED-printed propulsion tanks, LPBF RF Antennas and thrusters, massive forgings made with AFSD, and strong rocket motor (SRM) nozzles 3D printed utilizing SCRAM C/C. “I need to cease making brackets that save packages $5,000, and begin making tanks that save packages $500,000,” Northrop’s AM skilled stated.
One spacecraft propulsion tank, initially designed as a demo half, superior to full-scale efficiency testing after early outcomes proved promising. The massive-scale element was 3D printed in a single piece from Ti-6Al-4V utilizing blown powder DED.
Thompson defined that this methodology avoids the availability chain points linked to conventional forgings and castings, with hardpoints and feed traces embedded immediately into the tank’s geometry. For this utility, additive manufacturing minimize lead instances by 50% and prices by 30%.
The venture used the fabric qualification dataset developed by America Makes and Boeing via the GAMAT initiative. Thompson added that this effort pushes the boundaries of certifying monolithic stress vessels for flight, particularly in assembly non-destructive analysis (NDE) requirements.
One other standout use case Thompson shared includes topology-optimized honeycomb panels for spacecraft and satellites. These light-weight buildings pair a skinny outer layer with a honeycomb-shaped core. This mixture delivers excessive power and stiffness with minimal weight, making them superb for satellite tv for pc chassis, enclosures, and antenna buildings.
Northrop’s panels are presently 3D printed utilizing AlSi10Mg, with the corporate planning to shift manufacturing to higher-performance CP1 aluminum with LPBF. Thompson revealed that 3D printing these panels can unlock 90% price reductions and both a ten% stiffness acquire or a 15% mass discount.
Within the Radio Frequency (RF) area, Northrop has launched 3D printed RF antenna feed chains, that are presently “up in orbit, doing their job.” The satellite tv for pc parts had been produced in collaboration with RF programs supplier SWISSto12 utilizing AlSi10Mg and LPBF.
Delivered beneath the GEOStar-3 industrial satellite tv for pc program, these flight-ready parts cut back dimension, weight, and energy calls for whereas enhancing on-orbit efficiency. Northrop accomplished qualification of the feed chains in January 2024 and is contemplating utilizing CP1 to 3D print further satellite tv for pc {hardware} sooner or later.
Giant cast toolings, akin to mandrels for rocket motor instances and nozzles, are additionally experiencing important good points from additive manufacturing at Northrop. Giant-format wire DED 3D printing reduces lengthy lead instances and permits the creation of extra complicated designs than conventional strategies, thereby accelerating product growth.
Thompson acknowledged persistent hurdles, together with the excessive price and complexity of non-recurring engineering, in addition to DED’s decrease degree of automation in comparison with LPBF. But he stays satisfied that the good points in design flexibility and the diminished provide chain vulnerability outweigh the technical difficulties and preliminary funding.
Concentrating on a cohesive AM framework
To make sure consistency throughout packages, Northrop has created a bespoke inside framework for additive manufacturing qualification known as SPAMRS (House Additive Manufacturing Necessities Customary). It attracts on NASA-STD-6030, AWS D20.1, MMPDS, and key AMS specs, which have been tailor-made to satisfy the Virginian aerospace producer’s wants.
“It’s not one dimension matches all,” Thompson stated. “[SPAMRS] permits us to have flexibility to tailor our qualification course of to the merchandise we’re making an attempt to help.” This proprietary framework goals to scale back redundant testing and ease adoption throughout Northrop’s totally different flight packages.
Nevertheless, Thompson famous that this doesn’t get rid of the information burden related to aerospace 3D printing. Producing materials information and coupons is a gradual and costly course of, usually taking 18 months and costing hundreds of thousands of {dollars}.
Inspection is one other rising space of concern as additive designs develop extra complicated. In keeping with Thompson, NDE strategies usually lag behind the geometries they’re meant to confirm. “Usually talking, high quality makes up about half of the half price for additive components at the moment,” Thompson revealed.
Additive manufacturing for area stays centered on high-mix, low-volume manufacturing, posing challenges for standardization. Thompson recognized 4 main hurdles the {industry} nonetheless wants to beat: design-for-AM (DfAM), inconsistent buyer necessities, siloed materials databases, and distinctive provider processes.
Northrop has sought to curb {industry} fragmentation by releasing non-competitive materials information and advocating for higher provider interoperability. “We wish proliferation within the {industry},” stated Thompson, whereas acknowledging the urgent must unify requirements and necessities.
Thompson is personally main a few of these efforts, presently serving as chair of the America Makes Business Advisory Group (RMAG). This industry-led physique helps form the course and technique of America Makes. It convenes for one hour each two weeks to supply steering on accelerating additive manufacturing adoption and strengthening the competitiveness of the U.S. manufacturing sector.
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Featured picture exhibits Andrew Thompson from Northrop Grumman. Picture by 3D Printing Business.
