News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
The recently fired up Ignus-II is the second iteration of the Ignus-I engine, the first 3D printed engine launched by a student organization. Ignus-II builds upon UCSD’s research and data gathered, featuring many improvements to optimize efficiency.
NASA has invited Made In Space, Inc. (MIS) to submit a proposal for a technology flight demonstration mission (Phase II) of its Archinaut technology. Archinaut is an in-space robotic manufacturing and assembly platform capable of constructing space-optimized systems of sizes not previously feasible. NASA’s Space Technology and Mission Directorate (STMD) awarded MIS its initial Archinaut contract in 2016. Since that time, MIS, who recently won a bid to continue developing VULCAN, has made significant advancements in space-capable extended structure additive manufacturing and robotic assembly.
Aircraft manufacturer Boeing has announced a new partnership with Assembrix Ltd, an Israeli company known for its cloud-based platform that virtualizes and streamlines industrial 3D printing. Through a newly signed Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), Boeing will adopt Assembrix’s software in order to protect the intellectual property it shares with vendors throughout the design and manufacturing processes.
As additive manufacturing technologies continue to evolve here on Earth, they are also moving steadily ahead in outer space, due in large part to American company Made In Space. The company, which in 2016 sent the first 3D printer into space to be used aboard the International Space Station (ISS), has now won a contract from NASA to continue developing VULCAN, its next-generation metal space manufacturing system.
Norsk Titanium AS, a Norway-based company specializing in additively manufactured structural titanium parts for the aerospace industry, has announced the appointment of a new President and CEO: Michael J. Canario. Currently the President of Aerospace, Americas & Corporate Business Development for advanced composites company Hexcel, Canario will officially start his new role as President and CEO of Norsk Titanium in June 2018.
Jet engine designers, automotive engineers, physicians and even a contingent of bona fide rocket scientists attended the first GE 3D Printing Summit organized by General Electric to explore the potential of AM. Attendees came to take stock of the latest developments in 3D printing and its exponential potential. “The expected future always arrives late and in unexpected ways,” said Singularity University futurist Paul Saffo, who opened the summit.
GE’s Additive Technology Center – or ATC – is located along Interstate 75, near Cincinnati, in Ohio. From the outside, the building looks like many of the low, gray boxes in this industrial area. But step inside it houses the world’s largest and most advanced 3D printing facility and development center.
After a rigorous yearlong application process, metal additive manufacturing company Sintavia, LLC. has successfully received National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program (NADCAP) approval for its laser and electron beam powder bed fusion technologies. With the NADCAP accreditation under its belt, the company will be able to further pursue and advance aerospace applications with its metal AM systems.
It seems the excitement surrounding 3D Systems’ game-changing Figure 4 additive manufacturing technology has not been lost on the U.S. Air Force. In an announcement at RAPID+TCT yesterday, 3D Systems revealed that its Figure 4 Production system had been chosen for Air Force-sponsored research.
BAM, Clausthal University of Technology (CUT) and the Institute of Composite Structures and Adaptive Systems of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) successfully tested their innovative 3D printing process for the aerospace industry during DLR’s 31st parabolic flight campaign.