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Phillip Smart | Adelaide

Bolted to a test stand in Bangalore, India, is an engineering prototype that personifies the art of the possible in 3D printing. Commissioned by India’s Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE), the 2,500-component high-grade thermoplastic model is a full-sized rendering of the indigenous Kaveri jet engine, destined for the home-grown Tejas combat jet.

Printed in 30 days and assembled in another 10, it was built to prove that the engine’s major components would come together and work as advertised in the computer models, and also validated the design and positioning of the engine’s complex exterior plumbing, such as fuel and hydraulic lines, electrical equipment and line replaceable units.

The 3D printing process allowed complex components such as turbine blades, combustor swirlers and inlet guide vanes to be produced accurately for form and fit evaluation, often as part of larger subassemblies printed in one pass. But it did more than that; with 3D printing’s ability to produce hollow shapes, the engine also allowed engineers to test the flow of fluids such as fuel and hydraulic fluid.

The test article went from computer file to finished product in six weeks, versus the year usually expected of a CNC machined metal version, and at around a third of the CNC version’s cost.

Like many revolutions, 3D printing (or, to give it its more technical name, additive manufacturing), has taken some time to get going. But unlike most, 3D printing has transitioned to the mainstream. Long seen as a prototyping tool, advances in materials and technology have paved the way for the additive process to sit comfortably alongside more traditional manufacturing methods, and low-volume production runs are becoming more common.

History

For those new to 3D-printing, a little history. In 1984 American Chuck Hull found a way to “slice” a computer generated 3D design into individual layers and then send them to an extruding device, or “printer” that laid each slice down as a successive polymer layer. Ultraviolet lasers then fused the slices, creating a solid 3D object.

Like the original “build your own” home computers, 3D printing was popularised by hobbyists and enthusiasts.  But then industry adopted it as a prototyping tool, a fast means of creating a tangible object from something readily available, such as paper, to check form and fit of a component before spending the time and money required to produce the jigs or moulds needed for mass production using traditional methods.

But by using different extrusion devices, 3D printing can now manufacture from just about any material that can be liquefied or melted, from plastics to aluminium, titanium, even chocolate and concrete. The print is seldom the last stage in the process – products often have to be smoothed, painted, or in some cases even infused with molten bronze, to create the final version.

Inevitable advances in technology and materials, such as more powerful and flexible bonding agents, have made 3D printing capable of printing final products rather than just prototypes. The concept has exploded, to the point where every day reveals yet another proposed application in any industry from defence to entertainment. The slew of suggested uses and cries of industrial revolution could effectively justify Maslow’s contention that if all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.

European chocolatiers are now using 3D printing to produce individually decorated, easily repeatable lines of chocolates. Architects are turning aerial photos of cities in to three dimensional models, while oceanographers use the same technology to gain more detailed understanding of the sea floor. At a manufacturing exhibition in Chicago, US company Local Motors printed a basic car in 44 hours, then added electric motors and controls to drive it out of the exhibition centre. Local Motors plans to produce road-legal versions in the near future, where buyers will select their car design from a website and then attend a designated site to watch it printed.

In Japan authorities have 3D-printed basic concrete houses in less than 24 hours. Medical researchers are printing prosthetic limbs for a fraction of the cost required in the past, creating electrically charged membranes that can surround heart muscle and squeeze it on cue to replace pacemakers, and plastic surgeons are using 3D scanners to collect data points on the healthy side of an injured patient’s face to create a mirror image copy to replace the damaged portion. Home restorers are taking 3D scan images of unique damaged decorations and features to create accurate replacements.

Others have suggested ways of 3D printing objects whose size is measured in microns, down to individual placement of molecular structures as a means of synthesizing chemicals and medicines.

Additive manufacturing is even touted as the technology that will at last make colonising other planets technically feasible, by allowing pioneers to launch with only a 3D printer and bonding agents and use the destination planet’s soil as building material. The technology has already made it in to space – the International Space Station’s 3D printer produced its first component, a nameplate, in November 2014. This was followed closely by a design sent by NASA for a ratchet spanner needed, ironically, to fix the printer.

In late 2013 McKinsey and Company’s Global Institute listed 3D printing as one of the 12 “disruptive” technologies that will transform life, business and the global economy. McKinsey believes 3D printing could eventually impact 12 per cent of the global workforce.

American technology analyst firm Gartner estimates global 2014 spending on 3D printers will top US$669 million, 80 per cent of it on enterprise or industrial systems. Gartner expects the market value to double in 2015, which would make the worldwide market worth around US$ 1.3 billion. And US company 3D Hubs, building a business on connecting 3D printer owners around the world, says one billion people are now living within 16 kilometres of a 3D printer.

Big business too is taking advantage of the ability to produce specialist parts and components without the investment in moulds, jigs and space needed for traditional manufacturing methods.

Boeing already uses around 20 3D printed parts, mainly internal equipment covers and electrical tunnels, on every B787 Dreamliner. It has printed more than 10,000 components in the past year across its civil and military aircraft ranges. Airbus too is incorporating 3D printed parts in the A350.

Engine manufacturer General Electric has more than 300 3D printing systems and expects to print 100,000 components by 2020. The GE CFM Leap jet engine and future military engines will have 3D-printed fuel nozzles, as will French Turbomeca helicopter engines, after the company announced construction of a dedicated 3D printing facility in January.

The world’s militaries have been experimenting with 3D printing as a means of creating critical replacement parts for vehicles and equipment in remote locations, bypassing the traditional logistical chain.

In April 2014 the US Navy shipped its first seagoing 3D printer aboard USS Essex, a Wasp class amphibious assault ship. The move came only after determining how highly combustible powdered aluminium could be safely stored and used aboard ship. The Essex’s printer is a first attempt to gauge how the delicate printing process might be affected by a pitching, rolling, constantly vibrating vessel. Although the crew has evidently used the system to replace plastic tank caps and even the small aircraft models used to plan helicopter deck arrangements, the Navy believes it is some years away from producing spare parts for the ship itself.

Australian context

Australian defence suppliers were among the early adopters of 3D printing, and many sing its praises as a tool for Getting Things Done.

Adelaide based APC Technology (APCT) has built specialist displays and controls for aerial, land based and maritime applications for 30 years. Managing Director Scott Begbie said 3D printers give small to medium enterprises an unprecedented level of flexibility.

“3D printing changes everything,” he said. “We adopted this three or four years ago and the first one we bought was just a toy. Bu it’s still out there today just churning through stuff.”

Practical applications are not hard to find.

“A customer was here, discussing something he wanted to do for a door on his PC, he was trying to get something behind it. I ducked out early in the meeting to talk to our designers, and then came back in to the meeting. By the time we finished the discussion those guys had designed and 3D printed a door. The customer said great, I’ll have 25.”

After a meeting in which an overseas customer requested APCT create a prototype for evaluation, the prototype was presented before the customer had even approved the minutes of the meeting. For more on APC, go to PXX.

Parafield Airport based Mincham Aviation managing director Darryl Mincham said his engineering team has grown almost affectionate towards their 3D printer.

“My chief engineer calls it his little pet white ant,” he said. “It just beavers away in the background.” But it wasn’t love at first site when Darryl suggested investigating the technology in 2008.

“I said to my engineer, I’m going to buy you a 3D printer. He said it will be a waste of money, I’ll never use it.” But Mincham persisted, and succeeded.

“He now tells me that he wouldn’t leave home without it. If he could have one in his home office he would have one.

“We were designing and building unmanned aerial vehicles at the time and it was pretty obvious that probably about 30 to 35 per cent of the components of the UAV could be made out of a 3D printing system.”

He said it took some months to learn the potential of the system, right across the business.

“We’re one of the few companies around that do, from an aerospace point of view, a lot of the intimate facets of aircraft structures,” Mincham said. “We’re not just a sheet metal workshop, we’re a machine shop, we’re a welding facility, we’re a paint shop and design house, an advanced manufacturing facility and composite facility as well.  The 3D printer means we can save so much time in all those areas.

 “I think the biggest thing for us now is the technology’s finally reached a point where, for R&D and  low rate production at least, it’s affordable. Five years ago to get a titanium component made, to machine it might cost you $10,000, and to 3D print it instead would cost you about $10,000. Now to machine it will cost you $10,000, but to print it can sometimes be $1,000.”

Mincham sees 3D printing as being at the beginning of a large wave and believes Australia should get on board with the technology to ensure its future in specialist manufacturing.

“Unfortunately most Australians don’t understand that we have a brand,” he said. “You go on business throughout Asia and it’s amazing what the Asian community used to say to us. They used to regard Australian product as being the ‘German’ product of Asia. It’s always reliable, it’s the best you can get, but you pay a premium. We need to invest in 3D printing to maintain that.”

Even if 3D printing is not used as the manufacturing technique for final products, there are other ways it can cut costs and time for SMEs. Former fitter and turner and CAD workstation operator Matt Minio is now managing director of Objective3D, one of Australia’s largest industrial 3D printer distributors and design bureau. As someone who has spent time with both traditional manufacturing and additive, he believes the 3D printers can provide value even if they’re not being used to directly make product.

“You’ve got jigs and fixtures there that I know you’d be paying a fortune for, because you’ve machined them up out of aluminium and screwed half a dozen components together and bolted them and CMM checked them and done at all those things that need to be done,” he said. “But you could design that in one component and 3D print it at a fraction of the cost in a fraction of the time.”

 

ENDS

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