News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
It’s challenging enough to reduce plastic consumption here on the ground but in the air it’s practically impossible. I’ve become all too wary of all the plastic that is barely used and simply thrown away on flights. Apparently, I’m not the only one. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is attempting to curb the amount of plastic it tosses after flights by transforming used water bottles into 3D printing filament.
While the worlds of space travel and bioprinting have been intertwined for some time, they are both now colliding with the world of artificially grown meat. That’s right. Meat has been bioprinted in space.
Relativity Space, a company best known for its autonomous rocket factory and 3D printed rocket engines, has closed a Series C funding round worth $140 million. The funding round, which was led by Bond and Tribe Capital, will enable Relativity Space to advance towards its goal of becoming the world’s first company to launch an entirely 3D printed rocket into orbit for commercial service. The launch is planned for early 2021.
Almost exactly a year ago, we covered an additive manufacturing case study involving Safran Electrical & Power, a France-based specialist in electrical systems for commercial and military aircraft, and British manufacturing firm Betatype. At the time, the companies were working together to redesign and optimize an electrical generator housing for aircraft and saw promising results with improved part strength and stiffness and weight reduction.
British Additive Manufacturing software company, DNA.am and Israeli 3D printing AI start-up Printsyst have formed a strategic partnership to develop an integrated Artificial Intelligence (AI) solution to scale and optimize Additive Manufacturing in the aerospace sector.
Mankind is accelerating its exploration of space and the universe at an increasingly rapid pace. Manned habitations such as the International Space Station (ISS) have been in existence for over 20 years. We are on the cusp of starting to launch deep space exploration missions, but there are many challenges to overcome related to prolonged existence in space stations and transport vehicles to ensure our pioneers are able to live and operate in clean and safe environments. Facilities like the ISS harbour and nurture dangerous bacteria that are detrimental to humans, where already studies are starting to show that astronauts experience issues related to reduced immune systems, a syndrome called Immune System Dysregulation.
Boeing HorizonX Ventures, the venture capital arm of aerospace giant Boeing, is continuing its financial support of metal additive manufacturing company Morf3D Inc., which just secured a new round of funding from the VC firm. Though the specific details of the investment were not disclosed, the companies say the funding will enable Morf3D to meet growing customer demand.
Icing is an issue that has plagued aircraft manufacturers and operators for a long time. Evidently, I’m not talking about cake icing or the hockey infraction. Rather, icing refers to the phenomenon when ice forms on an aircraft’s wings on the ground or in flight. Today, aerospace engineers and researchers are taking significant steps forward in understanding and tackling icing issues, thanks in part to 3D printing.
Recently acquired by Premium AEROTEC, APWORKS is one of the firms carrying out some of the first and most advanced research on materials and applications for AM, especially in the aerospace segment. Located at the Airbus headquarters close to Munich, the company was Additive Industries’ first customer and has extensively tested the MetalFAB1 Beta system since its installation in March 2016. Now the time has come to scale up.
It’s official, nScrypt’s BioFabrication Facility (BFF) bioprinter was launched into space yesterday aboard the SpaceX CRS-18 Cargo Mission. The bioprinting system is now on its way to the International Space Station (ISS), where it will ultimately be used to print adult human cells and adult tissue-derived proteins into tissue structures.