Aerospace 3D Printing Today

Aerospace is a unique fit for 3D printing, offering a prime application area for many of the benefits of additive manufacturing technologies. Among these benefits are:

• Part consolidation
• Lightweighting
• Complex geometries (“freedom of design”)
• Rapid prototyping
• Low-volume production
• Digital inventory

Leveraging these benefits is proving transformative for aerospace manufacturing as today’s aircraft, rockets, and other commercial, private, and military aerospace builds are increasingly able to perform better than ever before. Fewer, lighter parts mean fewer assembly points that could be a potential weakness as well as a lighter weight structure, enhancing fuel efficiency and load capabilities.

Aerospace has long been a ‘city on a hill’ for additive manufacturing, offering highly visible proof points of the technology’s high-flying potential to very literally fly high.

Like in the automotive industry, many aerospace entities have been using 3D printing internally for years, if not decades. Also like the automotive industry, though, many companies have seen the technology as a competitive advantage best kept somewhat under wraps. This has perhaps benefited these companies’ bottom lines — but it has limited the visibility of these applications.

The GE fuel nozzle — which famously reduced from approximately 20 welded pieces into one 3D printed (and 25% lighter weight) piece — was among one of the highest-profile individual applications to be publicly shared. Such use cases are only ramping up; between 2015 and 2018, for example, GE 3D printed 30,000 of those fuel nozzles. Still, though, these examples are often heard over and over again because many other specific use cases are still seen as proprietary ‘secret sauce’ and not public knowledge.

The cat’s out of the bag by now, though, and it’s almost an assumption that any aerospace company is in some way utilizing 3D printing in its operations.

From SpaceX and NASA to Boeing and Airbus, this is certainly the case. These companies are among the highest-profile in aerospace to share at least some look into their 3D printing usage. Applications range from visible cabin components in passenger airplanes to made-in-space tools on the International Space Station, with both mission critical and aesthetic uses well represented.

The secrecy of ‘secret sauce’ is slowly changing, too, as in addition to broadening adoption of 3D printing, space exploration is becoming privatized.

Organizations like SpaceX certainly have their fair share of trade secrets but are also open about their use of 3D printing in applications from spacecraft to personalized astronaut helmets. 3D printing is often coming into play as well to not only make components of rocket engines, but also in new uses such as at Rocket Crafters for their fuel grains.

Smaller, private companies working in the space industry are celebrating the technologies they use to gain traction in technological advance and out-of-this-world achievements. By highlighting instead of hiding the tech helping them to accelerate toward their own liftoffs, these new entities are contributing directly to a shift in the conversation around aerospace technologies.

Aerospace 3D Printing Tomorrow

When we look ahead, we can see an even brighter future for an aerospace industry making more and better use of additive manufacturing opportunities.

While certainly the technologies will improve, providing natural points of improvement even from those areas already leveraging additive manufacturing, the largest single point of future impact for aerospace overall will simply be wider spread adoption.

While the 3D printing industry has historically been excellent at internally sharing the benefits of the technology (like those bulleted above), a sticking point has been in externalizing this message. Aerospace becoming a more open industry with these new private entities on the rise, and with more participants discussing the advanced technologies they put to use every day, will see industrial additive manufacturing gaining more attention, and more traction, overall.

If the GE fuel nozzle made anyone do a double-take, the next innovations to come — or even those already accomplished and not yet publicized — are sure to be fully head-turning.

Further parts consolidation, lightweighting, and other means of taking advantage of the freedoms that DfAM (design for additive manufacturing) enables have the potential to see massive advances in aircraft and spacecraft manufacture.

By optimizing every part of an aircraft, completely rethinking and redesigning the whole, a manufacturer might see unprecedented capabilities emerge. In an industry where every ounce of structural weight matters and lessening any possible point of failure is a must, industrial 3D printing is an obvious fit.

The technology will only continue to make headway into the aerospace industry going forward, and with that larger general footprint will come more significant discrete advances. The future of aerospace and 3D printing is a relationship that will be ever more tightly intertwined.

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But, what about the moon?

Thanks to NASA’s 3D Printed Habitat Challenge, we’ve been hearing a lot about building habitats on Mars. But what about Earth’s moon, our first love, in terms of extraplanetary travel? The last time it got some attention was 2013, when Yutu, a Chinese rover, took a spin on its dusty face. Well, the Google Lunar XPRIZE is reviving the moonshot, awarding prizes from five to $30 million for successful unmanned lunar rover landings. One team in the competition, SpaceIL, is planning to use 3D printing to build their lunar lander’s legs, as reported by Industry Week. The lofty goals of the competition include habitats on the moon’s surface, so keep an eye out for future 3D printed lunar applications — far sooner than on that red planet that gets all the attention.

Learn the (pretty darn inspiring) story of SpaceIL here:

Implanting the future

An Australian team has successfully implanted its second 3D printed sternum. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and Melbourne-based medical implant company Anatomics created the implant out of titanium and Anatomics’ PoreStar porous polyethylene material. The patient, Penelope Heller, is the first American to receive such an implant, and this is the first surgery of its kind on U.S. soil. The possibilities of medical 3D printing are becoming more obvious every day, but this is one of the first concrete realizations of that incredible potential. After covering Form Prosthetics this week, I’m beginning to think that the Aussies are in the lead when it comes to turning us all bionic. But I’m not whinging about it.

Do do that Voodoo that you do so well

PLA-only 3D printing shop Voodoo is jumping into the fourth industrial revolution with both feet, incorporating advanced robotics into its 3D printing factory. As ZDNet reported, Voodoo is making use of cobots, or collaborative robots, which are both easier to program and safer when it comes to working around people. The bots harvest prints from build plates, 24 hours a day. That means more printers in use, more money for Voodoo, and faster turnaround times. Win-win-win.

See the cobot in action here:

So proud!

As anyone familiar with Shapeways knows, we’re a Dutch company that just happens to have its HQ in NYC. So, we felt a twinge of pride this week when the first (successfully completed) 3D printed bridge debuted in the Netherlands. Led by a team from the Eindhoven University of Technology and BAM Infra, the bridge is the first 3D printed concrete structure to be put into use. But we know it won’t be the last.

See how the BAM printer works here (audio is in Dutch):

YOU WERE SO CLOSE

Bill Masters filed a patent for 3D printing technology in 1984, before Chuck Hull, the “father of 3D printing” launched his first machine. And the idea had struck him eight years earlier. So, why isn’t Bill credited rightly as our forefather? Limitations in computing power had a lot to do with it, as this Ozy feature makes clear — but also, Masters had other things to worry about. Namely, running the most successful whitewater boating business of the 1980s, Perception Kayaks. Now, we think Masters deserves his due. We’re revising the family tree, Bill.

Bill Masters in a Perception Kayak (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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Print a New Rulebook

We talk a lot about medical advances enabled by 3D printing, but it’s rare to step back and really take in how transformational it all is. Scientists at the University of Melbourne released a study this week outlining how disruptive 3D printing technology will be to the medical profession, changing everything from how we replace organs and how we rehearse surgeries to the number of pills we’ll have to take and where we’ll get medical care. Read more at Futurity.org, and, in the meantime, contemplate this gorgeous 3D printed tumorous kidney:

So pretty (Credit: Austin Health 3D Medical Printing Laboratory via U. Melbourne)

Crushing It

We’ve been following NASA’s 3D Printed Habitat Challenge like some people follow sports. So, we were super excited that this latest, second phase of the challenge saw two competitors duke it out to create beams, cylinders, and domes for an extraterrestrial building — using 70% indigenous soil. As TechCrunch reported, to complete the circle of creation and destruction, the building elements were then CRUSHED, er, well, “compressed to failure.” If the future means making houses out of mud and then crushing them, it’s basically going to be a day at the beach.

First place winners Foster + Partners looking at their crushed achievement (Credits: NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Steampunk Scientist Solves Prehistoric Mystery

That header was fun to write. Even more fun is watching the impeccably steampunk gentleman in question explain his PhD research into just how a scary/cute ancient sea creature, the Pleiosaur, moved through the water with its very odd flippers. While he may look capable of time travel, it turns out that he wasn’t actually able to go back in time to see how the feat was accomplished. Can you guess what he did? That’s right — he 3D printed it! Watch the video below, delightfully narrated by said gentleman, for the full story on the results of his research and how they might make boats more efficient. Or time machines.

But… Is It Safe?

When you’re working with fused-deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printers, you’re doing something pretty unusual for an average person: essentially, melting plastic all day. Researchers recently discovered that this releases volatile organic compounds, aldehydes, and nanoparticles that could, if ingested in high enough quantities, have negative effects on humans. As CE Mag reported, this led one group of researchers to ask, “How do we keep this from hurting anyone?” They discovered that a combination of enclosures around the printers, using low temperatures, and using low-emitting materials like polylactic acid (PLA) eliminates up to 99.5% of emissions. Phew.

The post The Week in 3D Printing: A Medical Revolution, Crushing a 3D Printed Building, a Prehistoric Revival, and Print Safety Check appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

Shapeways is deeply invested in 3D design and printing education, so we were delighted to find that one of Shapeways Magazine’s contributors, Michael Parker, is just as invested. Here, he tells us about a novel approach to teaching engineering using 3D printers.

This summer, I had the opportunity to teach a three-day workshop, Understanding the Technology of Additive Manufacturing, to students at New York City College of Technology, better known as City Tech, in downtown Brooklyn.

The students, who ranged from first-years to graduating engineers, received a small stipend if they completed my workshop, plus two more workshops: NASA Free-From Fabrication and Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace and Medical Applications. Together, they added up to City Tech’s Summer STEM Research Experience, a program funded by $1.3M in STEM grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and NASA, raised by Gaffar Gailani of City Tech’s mechanical engineering and industrial design technology department.

The summer students were probably expecting a dry lecture, but I wouldn’t do that to them. Not only are lectures boring, but they are poor preparation for the realities of working with the kinds of complex mechanical systems they hope to see throughout their careers.

So instead, I decided they would assemble a 3D printer from a kit. A RepRap open-source printer would be a good fit for engineering students. Due to budgetary and time constraints, I went with the HicTop 3DP-11-ATL, a Prusa i3 clone.

The workshop didn’t start smoothly. At the start of day one, only four of the six 3D printer kits had arrived. Still, I was determined to keep my introductory remarks short before launching the students into the build, where they could learn about the technology as they went.

Even engineering students rarely get opportunities to be hands-on with equipment, so I had to teach them to use their hands and eyes. We also used a variety of tools, but sometimes tools can be crutches and you can lean too heavily upon them. A tool can become inaccurate, but your eyes don’t lie. One key was making sure the students took extra care when assembling the aluminum extrusions that they were at 90° angles and flush. If you don’t have a solid base, you will run into a multitude of problems going forward.

By midday, the two wayward 3D printers kits had arrived. We completed the y-axis assembly and much of the z-axis assembly, including the bottom frame, bed carriage and main board installation. And with practice, students were able to see at a glance whether their builds were true or askew.

On Day 2, the students continued to assembling the frame, mounting stepper motors and making sure that the linear bearings were moved easily along the smooth rods. Then came one of the most critical parts: the extruder.

The extruder consists of a stepper motor that drives a gear to propel plastic filament into the hotend. The hotend barrel is meant to keep the filament cool until it reaches the heating block. The heating block melts the filament, which flows out of the nozzle and cools almost immediately. There are also fans to cool both the hotend barrel and the extruded filament.

On the third day, I made my students take apart their extruders that they had worked so diligently on the day before in order to upgrade them. The 3D printed extruder parts that came with the kits weren’t very sturdy, and the benefit of building this type of printer is that you can modify it to your heart’s content. A well-built and calibrated kit printer can rival an out-of-the-box 3D printer costing thousands of dollars more. It just takes elbow grease and persistence.

The students took ownership of their builds by experimenting with how to level the print beds, adjust the auto-level probe, and make test prints. Then came a quiz about additive manufacturing and 3D printer assembly. The four students with the highest scores on the quiz each took a 3D printer home while the other two stayed at City Tech, where any engineering students can use them.

The post Student Engineers Get Hands-on Experience — by Building 3D Printers appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

print in metal

Here’s a rundown of some recent developments in metal 3D printing:

Most state-of-the-art racing bikes are crafted almost entirely from carbon fiber, which is light and strong. However, Chris Froome’s Tour de France-winning bicycle features 3D printed titanium handlebars. The Engineer reports that 3D printing reduced production time for the handlebars by up to 75% compared with a carbon fiber process. No molds were needed, and the custom fit eliminated any need for adjustability, saving up to 17% of the weight of a traditional handlebar assembly while reducing drag.

Ship Technology reports that the Port of Rotterdam’s Additive Manufacturing Fieldlab (RAMLAB) teamed with Autodesk to develop a 3D printed nautical propeller. Their hybrid manufacturing process combined wire and arc additive manufacturing with industrial robot arms, subtractive machining (CNC), and grinding. The new process will help the port provide quick replacement propellers for ships.

[Credit: Michael A. Parker]

Spaceships are also increasingly relying on metal 3D printing. NASA has 3D printed entire rocket engines. Scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) created a 3D printed metal fabric to protect both astronauts and spacecraft from micrometeors. As 3DPrint.com reports, the chainmail-like textile, which is printed in one piece, reflects sunlight, provides thermal insulation, is foldable, and has high tensile strength.

Facial reconstructive surgery has benefitted from 3D metal printing. According to Additive Manufacturing, 3D printed titanium can be customized to the individual patient and aid in bone regrowth and stability. 3D Printing Industry reports that British manufacturing company Renishaw partnered with Western University to create a $5 million Additive Design in Surgical Solutions (ADEISS) center in Ontario, Canada, to produce metal additive manufactured medical tools and implants.

[Credit: NASA]

The Vader Systems MK1 Experimental desktop metal 3D printer, meanwhile, uses their MagnetoJet technology to propel liquified aluminum from an electromagnetic-field-encased 1,200° C chamber through inkjet-like print nozzles. Using wire feedstock instead of powders, it reduces costs and dramatically speeds up printing. The production model launches in 2018.

Shapeways’ interlocking precious metals are perfect for creating unique jewelry. Lead times for 3D printed steel were reduced by two days so you can create functional parts quickly. With the benefits of strength, durability, beautiful finishes, and a myriad of material choices, isn’t it time you took a dip into the white-hot 3D printed metal space?

try it yourself

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“Exploration” by Ashley Zelinskie

Nowhere does the line between art and science blur more readily than when we look to the stars. NASA has long been known to recognize the artistic power of space exploration, famously releasing a series of Space Tourism Posters to eager space- and art-lovers last year. Now, the agency has tapped into the imaginations of a range of multimedia artists to celebrate the James Webb Space Telescope, the observatory that will let us glimpse the ancient origins of our universe.

Twenty-five artists were selected to preview the telescope (which launches in 2018), and create works inspired by it. With its sail-like, 21-foot, gold-plated mirror – and mission to peer back in time – inspiration came easily (see the full collection of works here). One of the chosen artists, Shapeways community member Ashley Zelinskie, conceived of a work, “Exploration,” that represents the symbolic and literal achievements of the telescope.

To create the piece, which was 3D printed with Shapeways, the artist 3D scanned the arms of John Cromwell Mather, astrophysicist, cosmologist and Nobel Prize in Physics laureate and Amber Straughn, astrophysicist and Deputy Project Scientist for JWST Science Communications. Then, Zelinskie added a scan of her own arm. She combined the three limbs with a representation of the telescope’s mirror, with its 18 golden, hexagonal segments.

The arms stretch from the surface of the mirror, reaching into the unknown in a symbolic representation of the search for knowledge. “Art asks people every day to think about abstract ideas and opens a doorway for creative thinking,” the artist explained. “My hope is to apply this open-mindedness to science and, in this way, be better equipped to take in the universe in all its vastness and mystery.”

The surfaces of Mather, Straughn, and Zeleskie’s outstretched arms are made up of a lace-like lattice of symbols. They represent the Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker metric – the solution to Einstein’s field equations of general relativity. This metric, which describes the universe, is joined by the formula that describes a parabolic mirror. Dr. Mather summed up the symbolism of the pairing with, “One might say we build one (the telescope primary mirror) to test the other (Einstein’s equations).”

Dr. Amber Straughn framed “Exploration” in appropriately poetic terms: “Astronomy by its very nature drives us toward the unknown…there’s something uniquely human about wanting to find out about our surroundings, to explore our world, to discover new things. That’s what astronomy is all about.”

“Exploration” and the other works inspired by the JWST will be on display at the Goddard Visitor Center in Greenbelt, MD, from March 3 to April 16, 2017.

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Robert Hillian’s Multi-Tool, 3D printed on a Made In Space printer on the ISS

While just a senior in high school, Robert Hillian took on a challenge most of us can only dream of: design a tool to be used — and printed — in space.

It was all part of the Future Engineers competition hosted by NASA, SpaceX, and Shapeways, with in-orbit printing courtesy of Made In Space. Since winning the competition with his Multipurpose Precision Maintenance Tool, he’s graduated and now attends college in Huntsville, Alabama. These days, Robert keeps his eyes on even bigger prizes, hoping to one day work with NASA and SpaceX again. We caught up with him recently to ask about his design process, his future, and how he went from high school kid to NASA engineer.

Tell us a bit about what you set out to do for this contest. What was the goal?

My goal for the contest was fairly simple. I focused on delivering the best design I could, without over-complicating it. I was more determined to produce my best design in the limited time I had, rather than trying to win.

The tool you created for NASA — it’s a relatively simple idea, but the execution is really elegant and efficient. What inspired the design? Had you already been interested in tools and engineering?

Thank you, my design was inspired through my process rather than anything else. But one object that definitely influenced the final product was the Swiss Army knife. I enjoyed using tools but I never thought about designing one until the competition,  however I have always been interested in engineering. Creating new things is my passion, and engineering helps me to do just that.

The tool Robert designed for NASA and SpaceX Future Engineers competition

How did you develop the tool? What was the design process like?

I have an elaborate personal engineering process. I first spent a few hours doing as much research as possible on everything from tools astronauts currently use on station to how 3D printers work. From there, I sketched out the maximum build dimensions, and started deciding on where I should place each tool I wanted to include. Afterwards, I had the final product.

What was it like to see your model printed aboard the International Space Station?

It was incredible to simply sit in the Payload Operations Integration Center [at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center] and see the astronauts onboard the station. But seeing that my design was in space, in the hands of astronauts, was unbelievable.

Were you always interested in space travel or engineering for space missions?

Ever since I was eight, I fell in love with space travel, and I don’t remember ever being more passionate about something.

Is this the first step in a career in space, or do you have other things in store? Does being in Huntsville keep you oriented toward NASA?

I definitely think this is a first step towards a career in space — as well as a step toward more ambitious career goals and opportunities. Being in Huntsville definitely helps keep me oriented toward my goals. I hope to one day soon start a company and work with NASA as well as SpaceX.

Any words of encouragement for other young people looking to get into 3D engineering?

My one piece of advice to aspiring engineers would be to never stop brainstorming. And that it’s a lot harder to succeed in engineering if your ideas do not sound crazy to some people.

Robert, center, at the Alabama State House for NASA Day

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Launching today, is SpaceX CRS-4, another historic Dragon spacecraft on a mission to the International Space Station; but this time, it carries more than supplies and moustronauts. This spacecraft is taking a specially tested, groundbreaking new 3D Printer designed by the our friends at Made In Space, to the International Space Station for it’s first in-space testing. This marks the start of a new era, the first step in bringing on-demand additive manufacturing to outer space.

There are many challenges when designing for printing in 3D. For starters, there’s nothing to hold anything material in microgravity. Even after solving the gravity dilemma, the printer has to get off the ground, and endure 9G’s of force during launch. Ensuring precision with an extruder stabilized by no gravitational force was a problem our friends at Made In Space were committed to solving. After four years of extensive testing on microgravity flights and research at their NASA Ames office, their dream of 3D Printing of space is now being realized. You can watch the this historic moment live during the wee hours of the morning, a sleep sacrifice I’m personally more than willing to make.

After this initial round of tests, including the printing of 21 demonstration parts, Made In Space looks to recycle broken tools, space waste, and even regolith (aka moon dust) as material for the printer. The fact that this space man could be made of the moon dust we first saw Buzz Aldrin’s footprint in someday, quite soon, is absolutely mind blowing.

Astronaute Wireframe by Vidal Design

Oh, and about those Moustronauts. SpaceX will also carry 20 mice that will live on the ISS for 6 months, approximately a quarter of their lifetime, allowing scientists to study the effects of prolonged zero gravity exposure. This data can then be extrapolated out to apply to human life and weightlessness tolerances. Currently, astronauts spend six months in space at a time, missions to mars could take two years or more. The only way to see the effects of prolonged space travel, is to get help from our furry rodent friends. I can’t help but wonder, if things get out of control, will they have to 3D Print mousetraps?

All jokes aside, what is the biggest challenge you see with 3D Printing tools in space? What tools do you want to design for astronauts?

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