How Airbus makes high-voltage progress in electric aviation
At A Glance
Challenge
To produce high-performance batteries containing a myriad of components at speed.
Solution
Protolabs in-house factories for speed of manufacturing, Protolabs Network for economies of scale for higher-volume production.
Outcome
Accelerated development of electric aircraft projects.
For Airbus, prototyping high-performance batteries for drones and other aircraft requires sourcing a diverse range of custom parts. They also need flexible manufacturing services–CNC machined parts one day and 3D printed prototypes the next. Getting these parts quickly and easily is essential to their development process.
Thomas le Doux, a mechanical engineer who builds aerospace batteries for Airbus, chose to work with Protolabs to solve the unique challenges of sourcing parts.
How Protolabs helped
As a long-time customer of Protolabs, Le Doux believes that getting manufacturing quotes instantly and parts in hand quickly has expedited battery development projects for Airbus. “We need to get parts fast. Sometimes we need parts the next day, so the digital platform really saves us time,” he says.
“Protolabs has a really nice interface that’s easy for uploading different parts and seeing prices on the screen, and we can get them really fast”.
More manufacturing capabilities
When a particular battery required CNC machined parts with tighter than average tolerances–a familiar challenge in aviation engineering – Protolabs introduced Airbus to its global network. Thanks to its partnerships with highly skilled manufacturers around the world with extensive capabilities, Protolabs Network rose to the challenge of producing these parts.
Higher volumes as projects take off
In another instance, Airbus worked with Protolabs in the early prototyping stage, and later harnessed the network’s ability to manufacture larger volumes of those parts at competitive prices. “Even though we do a lot of prototyping, sometimes we need more than just a few parts.” Collaboration between the factory and network account managers made for a smooth manufacturing process. “We had a lot of support”.
As batteries are built from a complex combination of parts with many different characteristics, “the choice of materials is really important.” The engineering team needs to consider mechanical behaviour, weight, electrical isolation and conductivity, thermal insulation or conductivity, and much more. Protolabs’ ability to source countless materials on request made this easier.
Working with the combination of Protolabs and its global network sped up development for Le Doux and his team. “We don’t have to spend time sourcing parts from different manufacturers, and we can get different services like CNC machining, 3D printing and injection moulding from one place”. In the end, “We won time. We saved time on prototyping so we could move forward faster”.
