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AssigneeEmbraer S.A.
InventorsPaulo Anchieta da Silva, Fabio Santos da Silva, Danillo Cafaldo dos Reis
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Thermally configurable structural elements (e.g., aircraft components such as an aircraft winglet spar) capable of assuming at least first and second structural configurations are provided whereby the structural element includes an integral actuation mechanism may be formed of sintered shape memory alloy (SMA) particles and sintered non-SMA particles formed by an additive layer manufacturing (ALM) process, such as 3D printing. The ALM process thereby provides by at least one thermally configurable region, and at least one non-thermally configurable region which is unitarily contiguous with the at least one thermally configurable region. The at least one thermally configurable region is capable of assuming at least first and second positional orientations in response to the presence or absence of a thermal input to thereby cause the structural element to assume the at least first and second structural configurations, respectively.
A method of making a thermally configurable aircraft structural component capable of assuming at least first and second structural configurations which include at least one thermally configurable region comprised of sintered shape memory alloy (SMA) particles, and at least one non-thermally configurable region comprised of sintered non-SMA particles which is unitarily contiguous with the at least one thermally configurable region, wherein the method comprises:
A method of fabricating a one-piece aircraft winglet spar having unitarily contiguous thermally configurable and non-thermally configurable regions, wherein the method comprises the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.