In aerospace, tools, gauges, and dedicated fixtures often determine how quickly new structures can be industrialized. Saab and Divergent Technologies have now reported the delivery of initial fuselage sections for a future Saab product concept: an autonomous aircraft. The fuselages were developed and manufactured jointly—explicitly without exclusive tooling or fixed clamping and assembly aids.
The technical basis is Divergent’s “Divergent Adaptive Production System” (DAPS). The system combines software-defined, fully digital manufacturing assets with AI-assisted structural development, industrial-scale additive manufacturing, and a universal robotic assembly process. Divergent describes the goal as an end-to-end chain from design through 3D printing to automated assembly of complex structures—without having to build a dedicated fixture set for each part.
The delivered structure primarily demonstrates the scalability of the approach. The complete fuselage section is 15 feet long—about 4.6 meters—and is made up of 26 unique printed parts. Divergent cites laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) as the manufacturing process, in which metal powder is applied layer by layer and locally melted with laser energy. The individual parts are then joined and assembled in a robotic cell, with Divergent pointing to an assembly concept that does not rely on dedicated fixturing.
For Saab, the delivery is mainly a building block for transferring digital manufacturing into more demanding aerospace structures. Divergent argues that DAPS can shorten development times and reduce upfront investment because the typical lead time for tooling is eliminated. Whether the approach proves itself in series production will depend on repeatability, inspection strategy, process stability of LPBF production, and the robustness of automated assembly.
Subscribe to our Newsletter
3DPresso is a weekly newsletter that links to the most exciting global stories from the 3D printing and additive manufacturing industry.
