Date of Award
Spring 2015
Access Type
Thesis - Open Access
Degree Name
Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering
Department
Mechanical Engineering
Committee Chair
Heidi M. Steinhauer, Ph.D.
First Committee Member
Virginie Rollin, Ph.D.
Second Committee Member
Rafael Rodriguez
Abstract
In this thesis, an aircraft door hinge assembly provided by Gulfstream Aerospace was analyzed following an established process called DFMA. The hinge was then redesigned to be additively manufactured, which is uncommon currently in industry for load bearing components. It was shown that the Design for Manufacturing (DFM) guidelines were inadequate when applied to the new technology of additive manufacturing (AM). This was primarily due to AM's unique and unprecedented manufacturing capabilities.
A conservative redesign approach was followed due to a limitation in current AM material properties and time available for analysis. Despite this, a significant improvement in weight reduction and part count was still achieved. The total weight of the hinge assembly was reduced approximately 22% and the number of parts reduced from six to two. This weight reduction is estimated to save $56,000 in fuel over the course of 6000 flight hours per hinge redesigned, totaling $112,000 per G650 aircraft. All design work and weight estimations were performed in CATIA V5.
Scholarly Commons Citation
Schwarz, Kurt A., "The Design for Manufacturing and Assembly Analysis and Redesign of an Aircraft Refueling Door Hinge Utilizing Additive Manufacturing" (2015). Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses. 283.
https://commons.erau.edu/edt/283
