alt Hacker NewsActually, I think all of the jet engine manufacturers these days are using 3d printers for some of their parts? Although you usually find the press releases talking about this using the term "additive manufacturing" instead. See, e.g., this press release from 2018 about a notable jet engine manufacturer using 3d printing: https://www.geaerospace.com/news/articles/manufacturing/manu...
(Although note that these are not using plastic parts, to be clear.)
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Yes, implicit was that it was an uncertified part 3D-printed by "someone" who sold it at an airshow. Obviously a certified part from the manufacturer is a different story.
The 3D printing isn't the actual problem, as you note.
Getting it certified for flight is insanely difficult because one of the challenges of AM parts reproducibility.
It's not the "3D printed" aspect of the part that's driving the failure, it's that it's made out of thermoplastic. An injection molded part in this situation[1] would likely have failed in the same way.
[1] It's not clear what the source of the heat was or where this was in the motor enclosure. But yeah, one needs to be careful with structural plastic near running engines!
Manufacturers who use 3D printing use specialized 3D printers, not the same thing that hobbyists use.
They also handle all of the testing of parts to ensure they meet the design spec and they have the equipment to validate each printed part to ensure it doesn't have any major defects.