[ti:Airbus Adds Metal 3-D-Printed Parts to A350 XWB]
[ar:Jonathan Evans]
[al:Technology Report]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00]From VOA Learning English,
[00:02.48]this is the Technology Report.
[00:10.54]European airplane maker Airbus
[00:13.35]plans to have new passenger airplanes
[00:16.92]by the end of the year.
[00:19.07]The new models will use some of the most modern technologies,
[00:24.11]including metal parts made in a 3-D printer.
[00:29.56]The high price of airline travel
[00:32.55]is largely the result of fuel cost.
[00:36.19]So airplane manufacturers want to build lighter planes
[00:41.51]with more fuel efficient engines.
[00:44.36]They also want their planes to to have more seats.
[00:48.30]Modern airplanes like the large Boeing 787 Dreamliner
[00:54.55]are made from a mixture of plastic and carbon materials.
[01:00.20]The current Airbus A350 plane
[01:04.21]uses plastic parts created in a 3-D printer.
[01:09.31]But the model XWB plane will be the first
[01:14.30]with parts printed in the hard metal titanium.
[01:18.76]Peter Sander of Airbus says company technicians
[01:24.16]learned to print very complex shapes.
[01:27.96]"Normally this is a part of the fuel system,
[01:31.52]it's two pipes in one,
[01:33.83]and it's normally welded out of 10 parts.
[01:36.58]So in this case, with 3-D printing
[01:39.33]we have the chance to integrate the bracket of the pipe
[01:41.98]and two pipes at once and print it in one shot," Sander said.
[01:45.02]3-D printing also helps when parts are no longer available.
[01:51.41]Mr. Sander tells of a time Airbus engineers
[01:55.72]needed an extra part for airplane seats that was no longer made,
[02:01.02]he says it was easy to print perfect copies.
[02:06.30]"So we did a redesign in a week and printing in a week.
[02:09.90]So the redesign itself cost two hours,
[02:12.25]we took the manual drawing, redesigned it
[02:16.15]and put it on the desk one week later
[02:18.49]to the spare part guys," Sander said.
[02:20.15]The technology is developing quickly.
[02:23.19]Axel Krein is vice president of research and technology at Airbus.
[02:30.24]He says that the number of printed airplane parts
[02:34.44]will continue to increase overtime.
[02:37.69]"We are investing a lot of money in aerodynamic improvement,
[02:40.64]in material, in noise reduction, etc.,
[02:42.54]but 3-D printing is probably the area
[02:44.94]with the highest gain over time," Krein said.
[02:46.18]U.S. company General Electric says
[02:49.59]it is investing $50 million in a new 3-D printing factory.
[02:55.73]The factory will print fuel parts for airplane engines.
[03:00.93]And that's the VOA Learning English Technology Report.
[03:06.49]For more technology stories,
[03:09.54]go to our website 51voa.com.
[03:15.99]Give us a like on Facebook, follow us on twitter
[03:21.86]at VOA Learning English.
[03:25.76]You can also watch videos
[03:28.70]on the VOA Learning English YouTube channel.
[03:33.36]I'm Jonathan Evans.
[03:35.56]¸ü¶àÌýÁ¦Çë·ÃÎÊ51voa.com