Aboard the USS Enterprise – the Star Trek version – Captain Kirk could order up his ham n’ eggs using a “replicator” device. Later on Captan Picard took to ordering “Earl Grey tea, hot.” At the time I thought it was as unlikely a technology as warp drives and transporters.
I was mistaken. Look what the clever dicks at Southampton have been up to:
Engineers at the University of Southampton have designed and flown the world’s first ‘printed’ aircraft, which could revolutionise the economics of aircraft design.
The SULSA (Southampton University Laser Sintered Aircraft) plane is an unmanned air vehicle (UAV) whose entire structure has been printed, including wings, integral control surfaces and access hatches. It was printed on an EOS EOSINT P730 nylon laser sintering machine, which fabricates plastic or metal objects, building up the item layer by layer.
No fasteners were used and all equipment was attached using ‘snap fit’ techniques so that the entire aircraft can be put together without tools in minutes.
The electric-powered aircraft, with a 2-metres wingspan, has a top speed of nearly 100 miles per hour, but when in cruise mode is almost silent. The aircraft is also equipped with a miniature autopilot developed by Dr Matt Bennett, one of the members of the team.
Laser sintering allows the designer to create shapes and structures that would normally involve costly traditional manufacturing techniques. This technology allows a highly-tailored aircraft to be developed from concept to first flight in days. Using conventional materials and manufacturing techniques, such as composites, this would normally take months. Furthermore, because no tooling is required for manufacture, radical changes to the shape and scale of the aircraft can be made with no extra cost.
Cool.
Now print me a Mooney!
(H/T to occasional reader Robert for the link)
Similar technology has been around for a dozen years or more. I saw a device whose primary purpose was prototype auto parts back in the late 90′s. A basin held a liquid polymer. There was a platform just below the polymer’s surface. Ahe laser beam traced the configuration of the bottom of the part which solidified the polymer. The platform lowered a fraction and the laser scanned the next area. The input to the device was a 3-d computer model from something like Autocad.
I recall the rep also showed a replica of a human skull built from the slices of an MRI or CAT scan. The skull in question needed some delicate surgery so the model gave the surgeons a look-see before working on the patient.
It’s amazing what you learn in Boy Scouts. At the time my son was a Scout, I was a Scouter, and this field trip was actually a weekly troop meeting!
George V.
“Now print me a Mooney!”
At first glance I thought the Captain wrote: “Now print me money!” LOL
Me too!!!
We print a book at work that is called “Rapid Prototyping” and tells about the different companies that use this technique and the current state of the art.
Also, someone just came out with a technology for printing solar batteries (I think that’s what the article said) on paper.
I was wondering why he wanted
http://www.independent.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00251/pg-38-BIGQ-Reuters_251489t.jpg
Mooney? How about a Pitts?
And I can think of some other things that can be printed using organic materials…
Looks a little like a V-1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCdlBc__3kg
I’m thinking more like the movie “Weird Science” . . . make mine a brunette. Specs to follow.
I saw nothing wrong with the original specs per movie. Near optimum, actually.
And to think 20 years ago, I built snap-tight model kits. Now we can build snap-tight planes THAT FLY. Wow.
My question is what sort of wing loading a printed aircraft could withstand.
Mind you there are less fasteners to fail.
I’m in the early stages of building a RepRap ) http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page ) which will print plastic. This is early stuff, crappy resolution and finish, but I can MAKE stuff in my house of my own design for about $600. The next step in DYI printing will be a system with a DLP projector hooked to your computer and a machine moving tiny slices on a Z axis where your projector will cure on layer at a time with the reaction between the DLP projection and the liquids used in the Z axis machine. Really detailed, like 50 microns, for a grand or two.
Imagine being able to print an entire working gearbox, completely built, out of polymers. Need a new light load widget for your Super Bug out on the boat? A half – dozen years from now you might just wind up printing it.
Plastic arm broke off your kids GI Joe? Download and print it.
A few months ago,an episode of “Jay Leno’s Garage” showed how they have a machine that will make plastic(and maybe metal) replacement parts for his collection of rare vehicles: http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/extras/articles/jay-lenos-3d-printer-replaces-rusty-old-parts-1/
A Mooney, Lex? I’d have thought you’d have wanted a PC-12. I would have.
Or a TBM-850.
Printed planes have been around for quite a while, actually.
Personally, I’d go with a classic, such as the Fokker DVII.
http://www.aerofile.info/fokkerd7/d7html/
We use 3D printers alla time for prototype generation. These are a great check for fit and form before the unobtainium parts get EDMed to shape.
Real men use Ambroid and a single-edge razor blade when they want to make a model airplane.
My brothers and I grew up with Ambroid (and its fumes) because our Dad was a balsa model plane nut. The fumes no doubt explains some things some things some things.
Hey, it’s just acetone and toluene. Ain’t all that bad for you, unless you’re really near-sighted and have to pose yer nose right close.
And further: I love the smell of nitrate dope. I grew up with butyrate dope and glow fuel, but got into rubber power later, and I absolutely refuse to use the stinking butyrate. It doesn’t shrink the tissue properly, either.
Picard ordered it “tea…Earl Grey…hot”. Sorry, my Trekker side just came out there.
They have lab at MIT with a giant printer that is large enough to produce a house- they print out pre-fab walls with the pipes already embedded in the walls. It’s at the prototype stage.
3d model making tools have been around for years, but using a printer approach to build it is a major innovation- as is getting it to make moving parts! that’s quite an accomplishment.
I saw a clip where they scanned a Crescent Wrench and the jaw moved like it should. Of course, it’s plastic and can’t handle the stress the steel version can, but they are makig progress.
Things have progressed a bit since they let me play around with a 3D printer at work a couple..um…a few…darn, must have been a good decade ago.
Anyway, the result back then was gray plastic, and extremely fragile. Good for mockups, but only if you were careful handling them.
This is slick.
Yes, you post is exactly at the point. Also, i think it’s true that rapid prototyping take the major position in rapid industry.