India’s aerospace trade is beginning to lean extra closely on 3D printing, and one of many nation’s greatest engineering corporations is teaming up with 3D printing chief EOS to make that occur. Godrej Enterprises Group, which builds key elements for India’s rockets and satellites, has signed a cope with EOS. The aim is to carry additive manufacturing (AM) into extra elements of India’s aviation and house provide chain.
The announcement was made at Aero India 2025, one of many nation’s high aerospace occasions, and marks a transparent push to hurry up using 3D printing to construct complicated aerospace elements quicker and extra effectively.
Godrej and EOS groups at Aero India 2025. Picture courtesy of EOS.
Aerospace manufacturing is likely one of the hardest and most costly fields in engineering. In India alone, the aerospace elements market was value $13.6 billion in 2023 and is anticipated to develop quick. What’s extra, making elements that may survive house launches or high-altitude flights typically means years of improvement, testing, and meeting. That’s the place 3D printing is available in. As an alternative of utilizing conventional strategies that want many elements and lengthy meeting instances, 3D printing can create a single, complicated piece in a single go. That may minimize down on prices, cut back weight, and streamline design. Now, with this new partnership, India is establishing a stronger basis to scale that type of work.
Godrej Aerospace, a part of the bigger Godrej Enterprises Group, has been constructing key elements for India’s house missions for many years. It has made engines, thrusters, and tanks for the Indian House Analysis Organisation (ISRO), together with elements that helped India attain the Moon’s South Pole and Mars orbit. Its amenities in Mumbai are a number of the most superior within the nation in terms of house tech.
In the meantime, Germany’s EOS is a worldwide large in industrial 3D printing. The corporate has labored with high aerospace purchasers globally and is understood for its large-scale, multi-laser steel printers. EOS machines are already utilized in many industrial and spaceflight purposes, serving to cut back half depend and allow lighter, extra sturdy designs.
By working collectively, these two corporations plan to assist India turn into extra unbiased in superior manufacturing, and never only for government-led missions, but additionally for personal aerospace corporations.
EOS’ high quality assurance of elements for aviation. Picture courtesy of EOS.
Step one on this partnership is to arrange new large-scale 3D printing operations at Godrej Aerospace’s amenities. These methods will use EOS steel 3D printing expertise to provide elements for plane and spacecraft. They’ll deal with making sturdy, complicated elements which can be too troublesome to construct utilizing conventional strategies.
The partnership additionally contains help from EOS’s engineering staff, referred to as Additive Minds, to assist practice Godrej employees, qualify elements for aerospace use, and ensure the 3D printed elements meet the strict security requirements required for flight.
“This partnership is an enormous step towards the longer term,” stated Maneck Behramkamdin, head of Godrej Aerospace. “3D printing is driving a paradigm shift in aerospace design, enabling us to create complicated sizes and styles by a single printing course of. We’re dedicated to increasing our portfolio of ‘inexperienced’ merchandise whereas bettering manufacturing worth by materials effectivity and streamlined processes.”
EOS India’s director Vinu Vijayan added that 3D printing has already simplified aerospace elements from greater than 100 items down to simply three or 4 in some circumstances, reducing each price and complexity. He additionally identified that the corporate has succeeded in growing and certifying the primary flight-safety-critical, Class 2 titanium half for a passenger plane, which is taken into account the very best stage of qualification for aerospace.
India’s Chandrayaan-3. Picture courtesy of Godrej.
India’s aerospace sector has grown quick in recent times. ISRO now launches satellites commonly and plans extra Moon and human spaceflight missions. On the identical time, startups like Skyroot Aerospace and Agnikul Cosmos are constructing small rockets utilizing 3D printed engines. Each corporations have launched or are getting ready to launch their first missions. Wipro 3D, a part of India’s Wipro group, is one other huge identify in steel 3D printing. It has labored with HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Restricted) and ISRO, providing steel AM providers for jet engines and satellite tv for pc elements.
Nonetheless, a lot of India’s 3D printing capability is proscribed to analysis labs or small-scale manufacturing. Many universities and tech institutes, like IIT Bombay, have used 3D printing for many years, primarily for analysis and prototyping. Startups are additionally energetic, however giant factories utilizing 3D printing at scale are nonetheless uncommon. The Indian authorities really launched a nationwide 3D printing technique in 2022 to alter this, trying to develop the trade.
However to maneuver past the lab and into full-scale manufacturing, particularly for one thing as demanding as aerospace, India wants greater corporations to become involved. That’s what makes this new deal between EOS and Godrej so necessary.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussing Agnikul’s plans for rockets. Picture courtesy of Agnikul.
The Indian authorities has been pushing to construct extra of its expertise contained in the nation by the “Make in India” initiative. That features every part from fighter jets to satellites. 3D printing is an enormous a part of this plan, particularly to assist India rely much less on different international locations for high-tech elements.
Ankit Saharan from EOS’s Additive Minds staff referred to as the partnership a “pure match,” mentioning that India additionally wants extra skilled engineers and technicians in AM to help the trade’s development. As a part of the settlement, EOS and Godrej plan to work on growing native expertise and constructing long-term technical capabilities.
Over the subsequent few years, EOS and Godrej plan to check and certify 3D printed elements for actual flight missions. If profitable, these elements may very well be utilized in Indian-made plane and rockets and probably even be exported to world aerospace producers.
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