CAMX 2021 preview: Ascent Aerospace

Tooling specialist Ascent Aerospace (Macomb Township, Mich., U.S.) is emphasizing recently installed capacity to produce tools, molds and fixtures via large-format additive manufacturing (LFAM) at its Santa Ana, Calif., U.S., location. Ascent’s investment in the LSAM machine, supplied by Thermwood (Dale, Ind., U.S.), was announced in summer 2019 to bring the advantages of AM to the aerospace tooling sector. By leveraging its deep expertise in tooling to rapidly design and build additive solutions, Ascent Aerospace says it expects to bring tools such as low-temperature layup molds, masters, trimming/drilling fixtures, and vacuum holding fixtures to market faster than ever before. The Thermwood system offers a large build area, providing customers in aerospace, automotive, maritime, energy and others the opportunity to benefit from large-scale printed composite tooling.  By combining this technology with Ascent’s in-house tooling expertise and heritage engineering capability, the company says it will be possible to fabricate and deliver production-ready fixtures and molds with significantly reduced lead-times compared to traditional metallic tooling. The wide variety of materials that are compatible with large-format additive manufacturing, such as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polycarbonate (PC), nylon and polyethersulfone (PESU) is expected to allow Ascent to create tailored solutions to meet customer needs and specifications. Sean Henson, the composite and additive manufacturing product manager for Ascent, is also giving a presentation in the CAMX Theater on Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. on the features and benefits of 3D-printed tools.