Using Artificial Intelligence to Increase Aircraft Parts Availability with Additive Manufacturing

Air Force platforms have a clear need for innovative manufacturing processes which will result in weight reduction, repair capabilities, and innovative manufacturing processes to provide more mission capability. Almost every weapon system has the need to utilize polymer 3D-printed assets to reduce the time and costs of sustainment with the limited availablity of spare parts. In order to leverage the capabilities of additive manufacturing for weapon systems, there is a need for an automated assessment tool to evaluate and substantiate the viability of additive manufacturing for a given part. Generally, this processrequires involvement from multiple engineering disciplines, requiring time and investment to complete. Elevate aims to address the requirement of engineering suitability analysis for additive manufacturing with a software solution that evaluates component data with computer vision algorithms and artificial intelligence to identify components that are candidates for additive manufacturing, automatically producing a report detailing reasoning and recommendations. The solution provides end users with the ability to rapidly identify which components may be candidates for additive manufacturing, and the information necessary to substantiate the use of additive manufacturing.