News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
Having recently closed a Series B financing round, orbital rocket startup Relativity Space has secured a whopping $35 million in funding. The new investment will enable the Los Angeles company to expand and advance its disruptive rocket manufacturing process which relies increasingly on additively manufactured parts.
Hexcel Corporation has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the Aerospace & Defense (A&D) business of Oxford Performance Materials (OPM). OPM A&D produces qualified, high-performance thermoplastic, carbon fiber reinforced 3D printed parts for Commercial Aerospace and Space and Defense applications. The acquisition is subject to customary conditions and is expected to close later this month.
On the occasion of the APS Meetings convention to be held in Lyon, France, March 20 and 21, Nexteam Group and Prodways Group will install of the first industrial machine based on Rapid Additive Forging technology (RAF) for large titanium parts at the Nexteam Group’s facility in Toulouse.
The world’s largest jet engine took its maiden flight over the Mojave Desert on Tuesday, March 14. The GE9X engine – which has been known in the 3D printing world in particular as a case study for its 3D printed fuel nozzles – is a showstopper. At 134 inches, its fan diameter is so tall and wide that Shaquille O’Neil would fit inside the engine’s cover with Kobe Bryant sitting on his shoulders. The whole engine is as wide as the body of an entire Boeing 737.
Hangzhou based Dedibot presented a functional Drone 3D printer at the recent TCT Asia. The innovative concept leverages the company’s OAM (Open-ended Additive Manufacturing) technology which uses multiple drones for 3D printing of large structures on Earth as well as in Space and under the sea.
In a world premiere for AM of large aircraft parts, French aerospace manufacturer STELIA Aerospace presented a demonstrator for metallic self-reinforced fuselage panels manufactured through a WAAM (Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing) 3D printing process, such as that recently introduced by French 3D printer manufacturer Prodways.
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest human-made body in the low Earth orbit. Sixteen modules launched and assembled from 1998 to 2011, provide 32,898 cu ft of pressurized volume for a crew of 6 astronauts to do research in physics, astrobiology, astronomy, space medicine, life sciences, and many other fields. Keeping the ISS operational sometimes requires maintenance to be done outside the station, in the harsh and hostile space environment. Astronauts do this during extravehicular activities or EVA’s, commonly referred to as spacewalks. An astronaut on a spacewalk around the International Space Station.
The latest video featuring BigRep‘s Head of Vertical Marketing, Gil Lavi shows a visit to Polymertal, near Haifa, Israel. The company specializes in producing metal plated end-use parts. In this video, the parts are produced in plastic by 3D printing. Using a BigRep system, Polymertal is able to produce large size components for aerospace applications.
GE engineers recently built and tested 30 different prototypes of a complex, football-size jet engine component. Thanks to cutting-edge 3D-printing technology, they were able to reach the perfect design in just 12 weeks. This is remarkable considering it would take several years to iterate on that many designs using traditional casting methods.
Pzartech, a startup specializing in on-demand distributed manufacturing through 3D technologies, is joining Hangar Labs by BEDEK. The innovation commercial aviation program of Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. is thus welcoming the first startup to collaborate on visual recognition of mechanical parts. The aim is to eventually ease the work of maintenance technicians thus reducing downtime.