3D PRINTERS BOOST LARGE SPACE PROJECT

Lockheed Martin has extended its use of MakerBot 3D printers to produce parts and designs for its upcoming space projects. MakerBot 3D printers have been in use for about five years, providing easily accessible 3D printing for Lockheed Martin’s team of engineers in a host of projects.

Lockheed Martin is a global aerospace and defence company, with a mission to connect, protect and explore. The company focuses on next-generation and generation-after-next technologies. In alliance with General Motors, Lockheed Martin is developing a new fully-autonomous lunar rover that could find use in NASA’s Artemis programme. This is a team that pays homage to the original Apollo rover, the development of which also involved GM.

Some early design and development elements of the rover’s autonomy system take place at Lockheed Martin’s state-of-the art R&D facility in Palo Alto, California. The Advanced Technology Center (ATC) is well-equipped with a variety of cutting-edge technologies, including a lab full of 3D printers.

The latest addition to the ATC’s lab is the MakerBot Method X 3D printing platform. With Method X, the team can print parts in materials like nylon, carbon fibre and ABS, providing the performance needed for accurate testing. Moreover, thanks to Method X’s heated chamber, Makerbot says the parts are dimensionally accurate without any variable warping that often comes with a typical desktop 3D printer.

“At ATC, we have multiple MakerBot printers that help with quick turnaround times,” says Aaron Christian, senior mechanical engineer, Lockheed Martin Space. “I will design a part, print it, and have it in my hand just hours later. This allows me to test the 3D-printed part, identify weak points, adjust the model, send it back to print overnight, and have the next iteration in the morning. 3D printing lets me do fast and iterative design, reducing wait times for a part from weeks to hours.”

Lockheed Martin engineers are testing a multitude of applications designed for the lunar rover. Christian and his teammates are using Method X to print a number of parts for prototyping and proof of concept for the rover project, including embedded systems housings, sensor mounts and other custom components.
“The MakerBot METHOD X produces dimensionally tolerant parts right out of the box – and for all sorts of projects,” says Christian. “You can print multiple parts that mate together.”

Many of these components are printed in MakerBot ABS and designed to withstand desert heat, UV exposure, moisture and other environmental conditions. In combination with Stratasys SR-30 soluble supports, parts printed using MakerBot ABS provide a smoother surface finish compared with breakaway supports. Printing with dissolvable supports also enables more organic shapes that would have been otherwise impossible to produce through traditional machining. In short, 3D printing encourages engineers to think outside of the box more than ever before.

“We’re in the very early stages of development and the rover we have at ATC is a testbed that we designed and developed in-house,” explains Christian. “This affordable, modular testbed facilitates quick changes using 3D printing to modify the design for other applications, whether it be military, search and rescue, nuclear applications, or any extreme environment autonomy needs.”

3D printing lets the team test parts affordably, iteratively and modularly. One of the components printed for the rover was a mount for a LIDAR, a sensor that can help determine the proximity of objects around it. Broadly used in self-driving vehicles, Lockheed Martin uses LIDAR in many of its autonomy projects. The mount was designed to sit on the rover, a completely modular robot system, so it was printed in ABS to handle more extreme conditions than typical PLA. The mount also allows engineers to continuously swap out the LIDAR with different sensors, such as a stereo camera, direction antenna, RGB camera or rangefinder. It has a complex organic shape that can be difficult to achieve via traditional machining. The mount also has generous access to ensure proper airflow and keep the part cool and temperature-regulated on the robots.

An embedded electronics housing is designed to go inside the rover, or in other robots at the ATC. Although the housing was printed in PLA, due to its hexagonal shape it offers robust strength. This design also lends itself well to the open airflow needed to cool the system, while still protecting the device.

In addition to printing prototypes, Lockheed Martin is using 3D printing for production parts that will go into various space-going platforms.

“A big advantage for testing and flying 3D-printed parts for space applications is that it simplifies the design,” says Christian. “You can create more complex shapes, and it reduces the number of fasteners and parts needed, which is a huge cost saving because that’s one less part that has to be tested or assembled. This also opens up for future in-situ assembly in space. You have designed, printed and tested the part on Earth. Now you know that, in the future, you can 3D-print the same part in space because you have shown that the material and part work there.”

Manufacturing in space is expensive but appealing for future applications and missions. Now, bulk materials can be flown into space to 3D-print multiple parts and structures, rather than flying each component out individually. Combining that with a digital inventory of part files, 3D printing in space reduces costs by eliminating the need for storage and multiple trips.

“The digital inventory concept helps push our digital transformation forward – you have digital designs that you can ship up, where you just print the parts and have them assembled on location,” concludes Christian.

For further information
www.makerbot.com

Expanding optical microscope capabilities

Vision Engineering has launched its DRV Stereo CAM, a stereo camera system that converts optical stereo microscopes into high-magnification, high-definition 3D stereo microscopes.

DRV Stereo CAM integrates seamlessly with Vision’s ergonomic stereo microscope, the Lynx EVO, while also upgrading compatible conventional binocular stereo microscopes to full HD 3D digital stereo imaging. The system combines all the benefits of high-resolution optical microscopy and Vision Engineering’s patented DRV ‘glasses-free’ digital 3D stereo viewing technology.

DRV Stereo CAM allows viewing to be separate from the target subject, enabling remote, safe and ergonomic positioning of the operator where the subject is required to be in a clean or aggressive environment. Samples in laminar flow cabinets, over production lines and in difficult to access areas can be safely and remotely viewed, in 3D, away from the microscope.

Paul Newbatt, group sales and marketing director, says: “Another advantage of DRV Stereo CAM is the live distribution of viewed images and video, so now, high-resolution 3D stereo images normally viewed in-situ through an optical microscope can be viewed, captured, recalled and shared across networks. Team members located within a building, across a company, or anywhere in the world can view the same 3D HD images in real time.”

For further information
www.visioneng.com

Mitutoyo at Skar’s service

In addition to the quality of capital equipment considered by potential purchasers, the standard of the customer services provided by prospective suppliers is also a major part of any purchase decision.

The effectiveness of the support services offered by Mitutoyo UK is illustrated by the assistance given to Skar Precision Mouldings prior to, during and following the recent installation of a Mitutoyo CMM at the firm’s Hadleigh premises in Suffolk. Established in 1969, Skar Precision Mouldings has grown to become one of the UK’s largest injection moulding businesses. To help keep pace with demand, the company operates 35 high-yield machines with a tonnage range from 22-450 and a maximum shot weight of 2.4 kg, on a 24-hour/five days a week production cycle.

Skar’s requirement to undertake high-precision inspection routines and provide detailed inspection reports for a multi-national manufacturer of medical analysis equipment, recently prompted the search for a suitably accurate CMM. Having considered the offerings from several leading metrology companies, a Crysta-Apex S CMM with a capacity of 500 x 700 x 400 mm, was purchased from Mitutoyo UK.

As the Mitutoyo CMM arrived before the completion of Skar’s new temperature controlled inspection facility, the company took advantage of Mitutoyo UK’s customer service provisions.

Paul Chaplin, quality engineer and CMM programmer at Skar Precision Mouldings, says: “Mitutoyo UK provided us with a very efficient subcontract service. They measured and delivered our fully inspected critical parts on time, along with the required inspection reports. Once the building work was complete and our CMM had been installed, Mitutoyo supplied the part programs and ensured that a colleague and I received in-depth training.”

For further information
www.mitutoyo.co.uk

Hardinge acquires Ohio Tool Works

Hardinge has purchased Ohio Tool Works, enhancing the former’s machine-tool and work-holding portfolio with an attractive platform of precision honing machines, tooling and abrasives. OTW designs and builds both standard and custom honing technology for a diverse and growing base of global customers across the industrial, aerospace, defence and metalworking industries. Notably, OTW’s engineered honing solutions ensure that its customers’ own mission-critical products – such as aerospace components and high-pressure cylinders – are precisely finished for performance and reliability.

For further information
www.hardinge.com

Core strength

In addition to Walter and Ewag exhibiting a series of their tool and insert grinding and erosion machines, as well as a tool measurement machine on the EMO stand of parent company United Grinding Group (Stand E31, Hall 3), the group also reveals that a new customer-focused initiative is being launched which will “pave the way for a new generation of machine tools that fully embrace the digital age”. While details of C.O.R.E. (Customer Oriented REvolution) will remain under wraps until noon on the opening day of the exhibition (4 October), it is said to “put the focus back on people”.

For further information
www.walter-machines.com