On this episode of the Additive Insight podcast, we're joined by Steve Fournier, Senior Manager, Additive Manufacturing at General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI).
Fournier speaks to TCT ahead of a joint keynote presentation at this year's Additive Manufacturing Users Group Conference, which, together with Divergent Aerospace and Defense's Scott Sawyer, will share how General Atomics and Divergent struck up a valuable partnership at this very event.
We dive into this story of AM knowledge exchange, plus how Fournier helped to establish GA-ASI's Center of Excellence for its Additive Design and Manufacturing, and General Atomics thousands of flying 3D printed parts. Fournier also teases that AMUG attendees will have a chance to see some hardware up close.
"Not all aircraft are designed the same way, but they have commonalities in the way we approach the design. So looking at the way Divergent was approaching their structure forced us to reconsider the design aspects," Fournier tells TCT.
"When you live in a bubble of expertise or with additive, you don't realise that not everybody breathes this in and out every day. So that application became very beneficial to the business and that drove a lot more attention outside of our bubble and it really brought a lot of people into the fold to figure out everything we needed to figure out about this particular technology. From there we've evolved our maturation of the design aspects, the manufacturing workflows within the Divergent ecosystem and outside."
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