Flame-retardant Prototyping

By DE Editors

Paramount PDS (Langhorne, PA), a product development and rapid manufacturing company, is using PA 2210 FR material from EOS (Novi, MI) for rapid manufacturing of commercial aircraft components. PA 2210 FR is the first flame-retardant polyamide for SLS (selective laser sintering) systems. The material has passed independent testing for aircraft burn, smoke, toxicity, and UL 94 V-0 flammability.

The material is used in the rapid manufacturing of more than a dozen flight hardware components for commercial luxury aircraft.

This laser-sintered acoustic air plenum was made with PA 2210 FR flame retardant material. Photo courtesy of Paramount Industries/EOS.

Williams also notes that his customer has leveraged the freedom of design that rapid manufacturing offers. “Each aircraft component was specifically designed and engineered for rapid manufacturing,” he said. “This resulted in complex configurations, which could not be molded or machined, that addressed the form and functional needs of the aircraft hardware application.”