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Naval Research Interested In Bringing 3D Printing To Large Scale For Ships

Posted by samzenpus on from the print-and-fire dept.

coondoggie writes: The Navy this month will outline what it is looking for from additive manufacturing or 3D printing technology as way to bolster what it terms "fleet readiness." The Office of Naval Research will on July 15 detail its Quality Metal Additive Manufacturing (Quality MADE) program that will aim to "develop and integrate the suite of additive manufacturing software and hardware tools required to ensure that critical metallic components can be consistently produced and rapidly qualified in a cost effective manner."

5 of 44 comments (clear)

  1. I can see it now by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 3, Funny
    "Scotty - we need the temporal distortion generator up and running soon. You have 15 minutes!"

    "But Captain! the 3d printers canna take much more if this! They're overheatin' already!"

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    1. Re:I can see it now by TheGavster · · Score: 3, Informative

      The metal bits aren't what go obsolete. The tooling to produce the engines, the frames, the aerodynamic surfaces were destroyed only after the planes were retired. 3D printing doesn't help build microchips, wiring boards, etc.

      Could some of those parts have been produced better with 3D printing? Sure. Particularly inside the engines, there are very complex forms that are difficult to make subtractively. But the whole plane? Big simple forms are far stronger and consistent when stamped from rolled stock than sintered up from powder.

      The reason those planes were retired is that new requirements emerged, and it was decided (rightly or wrongly) that a new design was the right way to meet them.

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    2. Re:I can see it now by TapeCutter · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I can see a ships hull being printed in one piece but a lot of plane parts are made from drop forged metal because it's the only way they can be made both strong enough and light enough to fly, I assume jet engines have a lot of drop forged parts for similar reasons, 3D printers are not going to replace drop forges any day soon. Also the skin of an aircraft is not like the skin of a car, commercial aircraft use a laminated skin to make it more resistant to tearing when the skin is broken at high speed.

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    3. Re:I can see it now by oobayly · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Other components -such as gas turbine engine blades - are required to made from a single crystal of metal, for strength and resistance against thermal creep. If I recall correctly, the crystal is essential "grown" in the manufacturing process. It's unlikely that 3d printing will ever suffice for certain components. That said, there are thousands of components that could benefit from 3d printing.

  2. Re:Tired topic by ArcadeMan · · Score: 4, Funny

    Well then you're going to absolutely love the next story. It's about 3D-printed graphene quadcopters...

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