Topology Optimization Aerospace Bracket Design

Overview: The Arbitrary Aviation Company (AAC), founded in 1940, began as a sheet-metal forming contract manufacturer for aerospace companies and the U.S. Department of Defense. During World War II, AAC was increasingly tasked with scaling up their manufacturing facilities to accommodate increased demand and new process capacity to support the war effort, including machining operations for many of the small parts used in the final craft. By 1950, AAC had several facilities across the American Midwest, and served as sole-supplier for several commercial and military aircraft bodies. After a series of mergers and acquisitions with specialized fabrication facilities in the early 60s, and, later, early adopters of carbon fiber composite technology in the 70’s, AAC began designing and producing their own commercial bodies and wings for volume production.

AAC’s growth strategy was successful, and, by 2018, AAC accounted for 3.5% of the global fleet of commercial aircraft in operation, with annual revenues exceeding $17bn. 

Despite this success, AAC has faced substantial increasing pressure from competitors in recent years. For their competitors, offshoring of manufacturing facilities had enabled lower-cost production through reduced labor costs, and further distributing their manufacturing operations across several specialized international facilities could improve marginal productivity on individual components. Moreover, major organizational investments into lean production systems facilitated greater production control throughout the manufacturing process. In total, these efforts created a unique operational and supply-chain advantage for AAC’s competition.

In short, AAC would need to find another way to stay competitive.

To do so, AAC looks to additive manufacturing (AM) to conduct part redesign to optimize for weight, strength, and production cost.