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Lockheed Martin Creates Its Largest 3D-Printed Space Part To Date (engadget.com)
Lockheed Martin has finished quality control tests for its largest 3D-printed space part to date: an enormous titanium dome meant to serve as caps for satellite fuel tanks. The component measures four feet in diameter. Engadget reports: Its previous largest qualified space part is an electronics enclosure that's around the size of a toaster. This dome is large enough to seal fuel tanks bigger than humans and, according to Lockheed Martin, big enough to hold 74.4 gallons of coffee or 530 donuts. Glazed, of course.
Titanium is an ideal material for the industry, because it's lightweight and can withstand the harsh conditions of space travel. However, manufacturers end up wasting 80 percent of the material using traditional manufacturing techniques -- plus, each component could take years to build. Rick Ambrose, the company's executive VP, said they were able to cut down the total delivery timeline for a titanium fuel tank dome from two years to an incredibly impressive three months. "Our largest 3D-printed parts to date show we're committed to a future where we produce satellites twice as fast and at half the cost."
Titanium is an ideal material for the industry, because it's lightweight and can withstand the harsh conditions of space travel. However, manufacturers end up wasting 80 percent of the material using traditional manufacturing techniques -- plus, each component could take years to build. Rick Ambrose, the company's executive VP, said they were able to cut down the total delivery timeline for a titanium fuel tank dome from two years to an incredibly impressive three months. "Our largest 3D-printed parts to date show we're committed to a future where we produce satellites twice as fast and at half the cost."
What's all this in metric? And don't convert; the original design is bound to be in metric and I don't need double conversions, thanks.
Gallons wasn't counter-intuitive enough, so we're now measuring space in donuts?
Glazed, of course.
Lockheed, are you an engineering factory or a chocolate factory? Do you have skunkworks or Oompa Loompa?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
What do they mean by wasting? Surely they can melt off-cuts down and reuse it?
Here we go again
"Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race." - H. G. Wells
CBS fake news has a trademark on that phrase. So when you cover-up Spygate and Stefan Halper with crazy Russian conspiracy theories, please us the proper legal symbols.
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Don't be silly; we all know he prefers golden showers.
What's this in square octofurlongs?
This thing is a frigging fuel tank... so someone decided the best way to let us envisage its size is to tell us how much coffee it can take ?
530 donuts / 74.4 gallons is about 7 donuts / gallon
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Communications, remote sensing, emergency services, military applications.
Ezekiel 23:20
While this sounds almost sensible it also kinda sounds like complete hogwash.
Definitely not hogwash. There are issues of alloy contamination from the cutting tools, oxygen contamination, carbon contamination, and some others. Not necessarily insurmountable problems but not trivial ones either.
Well done, Lockheed-Martin!
Ferret
Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc
Of course glazed, the glaze dissolves in the fuel. You don't want to even think about what chocolate or sprinkles would do in there!
The coolants and lubricants are almost certainly not petroleum based either. So cleanup could be as simple as soap and water.
Cooling and lubricating fluids are not the big problems. You get alloy contamination from the cutting tools, carbon contamination, and oxygen contamination all of which are either challenging or energy intensive to address. Probably some others I'm not familiar with too. It's typically hard to remove certain alloy contamination unless there is a difference in vapor pressure. There also are challenges with combining scrap feedstocks for recycling because it complicates the process. A lot (over 50%) of titanium that is recycled cannot be purified sufficiently and so is lost to the cycle.
Are you two years old?
#DeleteFacebook
I'm sorry, but dealing with minor contamination like this can't be as expensive as digging it out of the ground and then processing it.
A) Where did you get the idea that it is a minor problem? Cite your sources.
B) Why couldn't it be more expensive? Chemistry doesn't really care about your preconceived notions.
C) Digging things out of the ground is routinely cheaper than recycling old material for many applications. No reason it couldn't be the case here.
That's the crazy part of this sentence.
Spying. When the bad people use their Anti-satellite weapon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
The trick then is to have a fast production line to replace what is lost.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
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>However, manufacturers end up wasting 80 percent of the material using traditional manufacturing techniques
I can't believe they were actually milling a part that big
At first I thought this said:
Lockheed Martin Creates Its Largest 3D-Printed Space Port To Date
Now that would be something!
4 feet is enormous? To quote Inigo Montoya:
"You Keep Using That Word, I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means"