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Old May 17th 18, 07:10 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
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Default technology for manufacturing less-expensive sailplanes?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-a...-idUSKCN1II1LO

"... the world’s first carbon fiber bicycle with 3D-printed frame. .... to demonstrate its design software and printing technology, which it hopes to use to produce parts for bicycles, aircraft, space vehicles and other applications where designers prize the strength and lightness of so-called “composite” carbon fiber parts but are put off by the high-cost and labor-intensive process of making them.
....
Arevo’s technology uses a “deposition head” mounted on a robotic arm to print out the three-dimensional shape of the bicycle frame. The head lays down strands of carbon fiber and melts a thermoplastic material to bind the strands, all in one step.
....
the company eventually hopes to supply aerospace parts. Arevo’s printing head could run along rails to print larger parts and would avoid the need to build huge ovens to bake them in.

“We can print as big as you want - the fuselage of an aircraft, the wing of an aircraft,”..."