en.Wedoany.com Reported - Eligio Re Fraschini, headquartered in Legnano, Italy, has partnered with metal additive manufacturing company Caracol to produce aerospace wing spar tooling using robotic Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) technology, achieving a 50% weight reduction in parts and significantly shorter production times. Since 1946, the company has specialized in tooling production, serving industries including aerospace. To validate the feasibility of metal additive manufacturing in reducing lead times and costs while maintaining quality, the two parties launched a pilot project.

Traditionally, complex geometries for carbon fiber lamination tooling are produced through machining or casting, facing challenges such as long lead times, high material consumption, and design constraints. In the pilot, Eligio Re Fraschini utilized Caracol's Vipra AM robotic WAAM platform to print near-net-shape wing spar tooling using 316L stainless steel. The part, measuring 1000 x 550 x 85 mm and weighing 110 kg in total, was printed on the Caracol Vipra XP system at a deposition rate of 3.7 kg/h over 30 hours, then machined to final specifications via CNC.

Compared to traditional manufacturing methods, the additive manufacturing solution significantly reduced material waste and shortened production time through high deposition rates and simplified processes. The project also showed that the 3D-printed tooling, after optimization, was 50% lighter than the original aerospace part, a weight reduction enabled by internal complex geometries that are difficult to achieve with conventional production methods. Caracol concluded that the project established a technical and economic foundation for future deployment, demonstrating that similar manufacturing approaches can be integrated into active production at scale.

Caracol's Vipra AM platform, launched in 2024, has been applied in multiple large-scale, high-deposition-rate tooling and part production cases, including a large composite lamination tooling (2200 x 2200 x 600 mm) manufactured by French machine shop Formes et Volumes, stainless steel sampling valves from JOME Engineering (reducing production time from 60 days to under 48 hours), and a 110 kg suspension and differential bracket for the NP Aerospace Mastiff armored patrol vehicle.

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