3D printing technology is making tremendous steps forward and even space agencies are more and more interested. ESA and the European Commission have started the AMAZE (Additive Manufacturing Aiming Towards Zero Waste & Efficient Production of High-Tech Metal Products) project, which aims to produce metal components with a 3D printer. ESA aims to send the first 3D printer on the International Space Station to allow the crew to produce tools and metal structures according to their needs of the moment.
The AMAZE project was presented this week but it’s already started in January 2013. Various factories are being built in France, Germany, Italy, Norway and Britain to develop an industrial supply chain. It’s in fact a project with very broad aims that includes 28 European industrial and academic partners including Airbus, Astrium, Norsk Titanium, Cranfield University, EADS, and the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy.
The use of a 3D printer to produce metal objects requires very sophisticated technologies. ESA and its partners use an additive manufacturing method that uses lasers, electrons beams and plasma to melt metals and build objects in high-tech alloys. Some of the materials the AMAZE project works with only melt at 3,500 degrees Celsius.
It’s possible to obtain new materials to build components that have high strength but at the same time are lightweight combining elements such as tungsten, niobium or platinum. The amount of waste is almost non-existent, another big advantage also considering the cost of these elements.
The possibilities of use are huge and we’re only just beginning. The aerospace and automotive industries could derive great benefits from this technology to build parts of vehicles of all types, including space ones, of the highest quality at a lower cost. Industries in different fields could build other types of metal objects and only time will tell the true possibilities of this technology.
The goal of sending a 3D printer of this type will require additional testing. To check for any effects of the lack of weight on the behavior of the liquid metals, ESA will perform tests on a plane in parabolic flight. This type of flight is used to simulate weightlessness by the free-fall method replicating for a short time the conditions present on the International Space Station.
This technology has yet to be perfectioned. One problem is the porosity caused by tiny air bubbles. The experiments are still going on but the road is the right one and it’s only a matter of time before it’s used on an industrial scale.
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