As a leading developer of military and commercial helicopters, Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. continually pushes the limits of what can be achieved in the world of vertical lift. It looks to set the pace for the industry and provide exceptional value for its customers with superior design. To date, Bell Helicopter has manufactured and sold more than 35,000 helicopters worldwide.
The engineering-driven company has a rich history of looking forward to advance its aircrafts and requires manufacturing solutions that allows them to fulfill design goals. When it came to the creation of functional hardware for its helicopters, Bell explored additive manufacturing, a process already known to yield reliable results for prototypes. Now Bell was hoping to put the technology to the test and see if 3D printing would meet its strict guidelines for functional production parts.
