News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
A team of undergraduate students from 10 colleges and universities across the United States – members of the Artemis Generation designed a reusable landing pad that could be 3D printed from materials found on the Moon. The novel concept – called the Lunar Plume Alleviation Device, or Lunar PAD – focuses on solving the problems caused when the force of an engine’s powerful exhaust meets the dusty lunar surface.
The hottest competition is in metal binder jetting and so it happens that, on the same day, two leaders in this field make a comparable breakthrough announcement: the ability to 3D print aluminum 6061 alloy by binder jetting and, more importantly, to proficiently sinter it. ExOne achieved this aluminum binder jetting breakthrough by working with Ford Motors Company on a new patent-pending process.
Stratasys is buying an Industrial SLA system manufacturer? 3D Systems answers by introducing an industrial filament extrusion 3D printer: a novel High Speed Fusion (HSF) industrial 3D printer platform and material portfolio. Based on material extrusion technology and developed in a collaboration with Jabil Inc, this unique HSF family of products, including the Roadrunner 3D printer, is expected to provide the best economics of any high throughput industrial fused-filament offering in the market today. Through the use of advanced electric motion control, this unique system operates at speeds and precision levels well beyond current state-of-the-art production platforms. With temperature capability and available build areas greater than those of competing systems, combined with an outstanding materials portfolio, the Roadrunner system is designed to address the most demanding aerospace and advanced automotive applications. The result is not only unique application solutions but compelling manufacturing economics driven by the size, speed, and precision of this new technology platform.
The 3D BioFabrication Facility (BFF) bioprinter from nScrypt, a Florida-based 3D printing system manufacturer, and spaceflight equipment developer Techshot is set to launch on the International Space Station (ISS) next month.
An Duong is a Rolls Royce aerospace engineer and a great fan of SpaceX. On top of a great talent for designing 3D printable parts, he has a real passion for sharing 3D printing knowledge, awareness and educational projects. As a hobby, to both build on these passions and support these extra-curricular activities, he designs, prints and sells incredible replicas of SpaceX vehicles, such as this incredible 3D printed Starship model, via his MoreThan3D portal.
APWorks and SAP aim to transform the manufacturing supply chain with 3D Printing. The fully owned Airbus subsidiary – which has been experimenting with the state of the art in AM – announced the signing of a co-innovation agreement with german enterprise software giant SAP, which aims to accelerate the adoption and standardization of industrial 3D printing initiatives for the aerospace and defense industry. This announcement was made at the Farnborough International Airshow being held July 11– 17 in Hampshire, England. APWorks will to use the 3D printing services recently announced by SAP to operate a bionics network that connects 3D printing experts and end users. These services will allow APWorks to manufacture 3D printed components such as armrests and brackets, improve fuel efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions. “The ability to 3D print all the possible components of an A350 aircraft could reduce the weight of it by nearly a ton,” said Joachim Zettler, CEO of APWorks. “On-demand 3D printing cloud service from SAP can help us to develop our vision for distributed, on-demand production of aerospace components and still meet the high quality standards necessary to make the aircraft fly.” APWorks can also better manage spare part orders in real time to deliver qualified products for safety-critical applications in aerospace and other industries. The co-innovation agreement between SAP and APWorks plans to address the following areas: • Digitalization and simplification of the production part approval process • Screening and validating parts for using the 3D printing process • Designing and redesigning of a part or system to optimize for on-demand manufacturing and 3D printing • Accelerating and standardizing the processes for certifying the manufacturing of parts by 3D printing firms • Securing an on-demand budgetary price for manufacturing firms to evaluate 3D printing parts versus traditional manufacturing, including cost components such as tax and warehousing, using the SAP® Product Lifecycle Costing solution • Covering each stage from production floor to customer door — for seamless routing of the order 3D printing is now moving beyond industrial prototyping and into manufacturing industries using multiple materials including metals, plastics and ceramics, which is helping to reinvent the manufacturing supply chain.
Premium AEROTEC and GE Additive certified lasers used to additively manufacture titanium components, another milestone in the serial production of metal AM components for the aerospace industry. Premium AEROTEC will use the newly validated system to produce components for the Airbus A320 family.
On the evening (EST) of November 15th, NASA will provide coverage (see video above) of the upcoming prelaunch and launch activities for the agency’s SpaceX Commercial Crew-1 mission with astronauts to the International Space Station. In the meantime, you can sit back and enjoy the 3D printed replica of the 4-seat Commercial Crew Dragon capsule, created by Rolls Royce engineer An Duong on his Morethan3D portal.
Aerospace manufacturer Boeing has a qualified 3D printer OEM Stratasys’ Antero 800NA thermoplastic filament for flying parts. In this way, PEKK-based polymers can now be used to additively manufacture end-use components on Boeing aircraft.
A few years ago, GE first considered using 3D printing to manufacture turbine blades and other compo ...