Research progress and application of additive manufacturing technology for rotorcraft structure

The rotorcraft structures have typical characteristics such as small batches， multi-specifications， complex shape and high-performance requirements. Additive manufacturing technologies have the ability to integrally form complex shapes and structures and produce on demand， which can achieve lightweight and rapid preparation of structures. It is an ideal process preparation solution for rotorcraft structures. However， although additive manufacturing technologies originating from rapid prototype preparation have been used in rotorcraft structures for more than 10 years， due to many challenges such as the stability of additive manufacturing technology structural parts preparation， extremely high R&D certification costs and rapid technology iteration， for rotorcraft structures， additive manufacturing technology still belongs to the category of new materials， new processes and new technologies. In order to meet the efficient application demand of additive manufacturing technology in domestic rotorcraft structures， based on the application status and development trend of additive manufacturing technology in foreign rotorcraft structures are reviewed and examined， development suggestions for the engineering application of additive manufacturing technology in domestic rotorcraft structures are proposed： constructing quantitative evaluation criteria for the application of additive technology in rotorcraft structures， establishing structural design optimization technology for additive manufacturing， developing high-performance materials， new additive manufacturing processes and high-quality post-processing methods for additively manufactured structural parts， realizing real-time monitoring and process parameter control of additive manufacturing process and universal and efficient airworthiness.