Case Study: US Air Force achieves full-flight qualification for a 2x-stiffer F-16 AM spare part in 30 days with nTopology

US Air Force - Customer Case Study

The US Air Force challenged engineering teams to redesign a hydraulic tube clamp for F-16 aircraft under the Rapid Sustainment Office’s 30-day Approval Sprints, requiring full-flight qualification across dimensional, environmental, and load conditions. nTopology (using the nTop Platform’s topology optimization and reusable workflows) partnered with Origin and Stress Engineering Services to address the urgent need for a stronger, AM-ready spare part that could be produced on demand.

nTopology implemented topology optimization and automated post-TopOpt smoothing in the nTop Platform to generate and iterate over 30 designs in 30 days, producing a three‑piece clamp family that achieved 2× the stiffness of the legacy part, 5% weight reduction, and a 50% reduction in peak stresses. The redesign was manufacturable on-demand (over 1,200 units/day at $1.25 each), serialized for traceability, and won 1st place in the competition — demonstrating nTopology’s measurable impact on performance, speed, and supply-chain resiliency.

US Air Force