
Nasa’s New UAV Is 80% 3D-Printed - rbanffy
https://www.aerodefensetech.com/component/content/article/adt/features/insider/34484
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duxup
[https://www.nasa.gov/feature/langley/langley-aerodrome-
creat...](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/langley/langley-aerodrome-created-to-
explore-urban-air-mobility)

I assume this is 3D-printed from some 3D printing tech beyond what I've
experienced buying some small 3D printed items that are temperature sensitive
and kinda flexy?

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dogma1138
The mechanical parts of the printer aren't that important pretty much all the
printers can reach a good enough resolution for production.

The biggest thing in 3D printing now is high end composite filaments and multi
material applications.

So for example if you print with PEEK (PolyEtherEtherKetone) or
PEK/PEKK/PEKEKK you can print extremely strong parts which can be used for
aerospace applications and even more.

The problem is that those materials are very expensive PEEK can easily get to
$250-300 per lb. and even higher for the better known brands and composite
PEEK filaments (e.g. fibre reinforced PEEK).

Beyond that you are limited by your print volume but many of the cheap
printers especially the Chinese ones are pretty good in that regard.

My largest 3D printer (Anycubic Chiron) has a custom print head (E3D Volcano)
and custom drivers my hotend can reach 420c> so I can print with PEEK I just
can't afford it, not to mention w/e NASA has used for this which I'll assume
is probably even more expensive.

That said I can print quadcopters and small drones with glass or carbon fibre
reinforced nylon or PET easily and the 3D printed parts are usually the
toughest part of those builds.

~~~
ordinaryradical
The real problem with printing these materials is that the part isotropy is
poor, so you get the expected strength on the x- and y- axes but the z- axis
(where all of the layers are stacking up) is quite poor. Turns out that
printing things in a layer-by-layer fashion has its own cost.

I'm quite involved in this area, happy to share more if anyone is interested.

~~~
dzhiurgis
> share more if anyone is interested.

What would it take to print 45ft yacht hull?

And not just the mould, but the hull itself?

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dogma1138
A very large printer..

[http://www.thermwood.com/lsam_home.htm](http://www.thermwood.com/lsam_home.htm)

Technically they printed it for a mold but that's because fiberglass is better
and while you can can print with glass reinforced materials the fibers have to
be quite short which reduces their tensile strength compared to composite
sheets.

That said if you really wanted too you could print a functional hull, but it's
not a good application for it.

Not every manufacturing method is appropriate we can CNC mill a car from a
single block of aluminum too but it's not exactly a good manufacturing process
for this task.

EDIT: HanseYachts AG apparently prints a 10m (~33ft) hull for one of their
Yachts using a cellulose composite filament.

~~~
dzhiurgis
Cars are mass produced, yachts are much less so.

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tantalor
Mods: Nasa's -> NASA's

~~~
teraflop
This is a stylistic and regional difference. The convention in the UK is to
use title case for acronyms, and all-caps for initialisms.

~~~
rjsw
Why would conventions in the UK matter ? It is an article about a US agency on
a US website.

Just use the original title.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
The submitter might be from the UK, or some country other than USA, or use
language constructs from such an area. The submitter might have corrected the
title to match their local conventions.

That makes the title _right_, just not consistent with the conventions of a
particular country.

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gigatexal
Is it also much cheaper?

~~~
inflatableDodo
Given this bit - "allowing engineers to change the wings, the fuselage, and
other sections quite rapidly.", then it probably is, at least in comparison to
having to produce lots of different aircraft.

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pjc50
Exactly - conventional techniques involving moulds would probably be cheaper
if you're making 100 or even 10 of them, but if you're making 1 of them 3D
printing is excellent.

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Solar19
Anyone know what it's made out of, the specific materials?

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JackFr
Step one for an eventual von Neumann probe. Go NASA!

~~~
aeternus
Relativity Space is also working on this, but with rockets:

[https://www.relativityspace.com/](https://www.relativityspace.com/)

