Advanced Metallic Manufacturing Approaches for Commercial Transport Fuselage Structures

Request For Information (RFI) - Advanced Metallic Manufacturing Approaches for Commercial Transport Fuselage Structures The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is seeking the aeronautics community's interest and information on advanced aluminum manufacturing technologies germane to commercial transport-scale fuselage structures. Under the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD), the Advanced Air Transport Technology (AATT) project is developing technologies for ultra-efficient commercial vehicles. One of the technical challenges in this project is focused on technologies enabling high rate manufacturing while simultaneously reducing weight and cost. NASA is exploring the use of metallic integrally stiffened cylinder (ISC) technology to fabricate single-piece aluminum cylindrical sections for fuselage applications. The ISC process is a single-step flow forming process which creates a thin-walled cylindrical shell with integral longitudinal stiffeners along the inner mold line of the cylinder. By integrally forming the longitudinal stiffeners and skins simultaneously, the ISC process offers significant reduction in cost, weight, and manufacturing time by reducing part count and eliminating lap joints and rivets (fasteners) that create structural defects and load discontinuities. While the ISC approach can produce the required longitudinal stiffener-skin fuselage structure, additional structural elements such as circumferential ring frames, reinforcement around windows and doors are still required, and joining technologies will be necessary to assemble individual ISCs into a fuselage-length structure. Collaborations are sought to identify technologies for integrating ISCs into a representative fuselage manufacturing demonstration and test article. NASA is currently contracted with a commercial metals forming vendor to produce four, 10-foot diameter, 5-foot long ISCs, as shown in Figure 1 attached to this synopsis. Although not yet optimized for aircraft structural sizing and spacing, the 6061-aluminum ISCs have been demonstrated at the 10-foot diameter scale with skin and stiffener sized initially for producibility. A structural optimization study is currently underway to explore the manufacturing design space for flow-formed ISCs compared with state-of-the-art riveted assembly to inform future structural designs. The fabricated ISCs afford an opportunity to investigate complementary technologies in parallel to the structural optimization studies. It is our intent to start with these 10-foot diameter ISCs and use other advanced manufacturing processes, such as forming, joining, welding, and/or additive manufacturing to produce a 20-foot long manufacturing demonstration and test article. NASA is seeking industry input into advanced metallic manufacturing technologies to incorporate internal structure and assemble individual ISC segments into a representative fuselage structure. The ultimate goal is to advance the Manufacturing Readiness Level (MRL) of the suite of next-generation metallic manufacturing technologies that enable production of commercial-transport scale aircraft structure at a targeted rate of 100 aircraft per month without building new production facilities. Although this RFI will not result in a contracted activity directly, responses will assist with defining NASA's next steps towards a manufacturing demonstration and test article. The purpose of this RFI is to: Assess aerospace community interest, including aircraft manufacturing and other aerospace applications, in new aluminum manufacturing processes; Explore emerging manufacturing and joining technologies that enable integrating structural elements into ISCs to form a 10-foot diameter, 20-foot long manufacturing demonstration and test article representative of a commercial transport fuselage structure; Identify potential partners to collaborate on integrating these emerging technologies into a manufacturing demonstration and test article; and Ascertain levels of interest and potential cost-sharing opportunities with partners for a future collaborative research project. Information received from this RFI may be used to develop a viable design, suite of technologies, cost estimate, and notional timeline for a future manufacturing demonstration and fuselage test, which will be used to inform AATT project plans. Description of Information Requested: Responses to this request for information shall include: Respondent Information: Name of Respondent; Respondent's address; Name and contact information for primary Respondent Point of Contact (POC), including POC's name, title (or affiliation with respondent entity), email address, and phone number; and General description of Respondent's capabilities and experience in the subject matter of this RFI. Short descriptive responses to the following: Starting with ISCs as shown in Figure 1, what approach would you use to finish the skins and longitudinal blade stiffeners from the as-flow-formed ISC dimensions into more representative aircraft-scaled thicknesses? What manufacturing technology candidates would you be interested in exploring that could be used to incorporate circumferential reinforcement into the ISCs for supporting representative flight loads in the fuselage section? Identify related additive manufacturing (AM) technologies, if applicable, that may enable automated high rate production, simplified load paths and/or simultaneously enable weight reductions. What approach and suitable manufacturing technology candidates would you recommend for integrating cut-outs and reinforcements around windows? What other structural components (such as floors, doors, etc.) would be beneficial to incorporate into a manufacturing demonstration and test article to advance the state-of-the-art and demonstrate feasibility for using ISCs as a building block for fuselage structure? Describe the order of assembly and approach would you take for incorporating internal structural reinforcement and joining 5-foot-long ISCs into a 20-foot-long structure representative of an integrated fuselage. Identify any other technologies that would be of interest to incorporate into an aluminum fuselage manufacturing demonstration and test article (such as selective reinforcement, localized stiffening, integral sensors, etc.) for proving out in a combined-load/pressurized test. Describe test objectives and conditions that would be recommended to evaluate the efficacy of the manufacturing processes and resulting structural performance of the integrated aluminum fuselage test article (assume testing would be performed at NASA Langley Research Center's Combined Loads Test System (COLTS) facility which is equipped with capabilities to simultaneously provide internal pressure, static bend, and static twist or any combination therein). Describe interest in any dual-use technology applications that could leverage the ISC and complementary technologies for building advanced metallic structures. What is your level of interest in collaborating on an advanced aluminum manufacturing demonstration and test article? Which technologies and capabilities would you propose using to integrate ISCs into representative fuselage structures at this 10-foot diameter scale? How much cost sharing (cash and in-kind) would you be willing to provide? It is emphasized that this RFI is NOT a Request for Proposal, Quotation, or Invitation for Bid. This RFI is for information and planning purposes only, subject to FAR Clause 52.215-3 titled - Request for Information or Solicitation for Planning Purposes, and is NOT to be construed as a commitment by the Government to enter into a contractual and/or binding agreement, nor will the Government pay for information solicited. The Government may request follow-on discussion with one or more respondents, at the Government's discretion, to obtain clarification or additional detail of the material submitted. Respondents will not be notified of the results of the evaluation. It is not NASA's intent to publicly disclose Respondents proprietary information obtained in response to this RFI. Proprietary and export controlled information should be marked appropriately in your response. To the full extent that it is protected pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act and other laws and regulations, information identified by a Respondent as - Proprietary or Confidential will be kept confidential. NO CLASSIFIED INFORMATION SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN ANY RFI RESPONSE. No solicitation exists; therefore, do not request a copy of the solicitation. If a solicitation is released, it will be synopsized in beta.sam.gov. It is the responsibility of any potential offerors/bidders to monitor these sites for the release of any solicitation or synopsis. The Point of Contact (POC) for questions regarding this RFI is: Karen Taminger contact@example.gov +1 (555) 000-0000 All responses shall be submitted via e-mail to contact@example.gov by 5:00 pm ET on March 2, 2020. Files may be submitted in MS Word, PDF, or RTF format. Paper submissions will not be accepted. All responses shall be no more than twenty (20) pages including graphs, charts, tables, illustrations, and other figures. A page is defined as one (1) sheet 8 - x 11 inches using a minimum of 12-point font size for text.