Dec 23, 2015 | By Benedict
On December 15th 2015, the latest meeting of the LIGHT project consortium took place at the Magna Parva headquarters in Leicester, UK. The purpose of the meeting was to allow partners to review the progress of three 3D printed demonstrator parts, which are in various stages of development.
3D printed earth re-entry capsule with optimized lattice structure
With the support of Innovative UK, the LIGHT project, so named because of its mass-reducing intentions, aims to accelerate the development of several lightweight 3D printed parts, all made from metals. Each company participating in the consortium is making use of low-density lattice structures, thanks to an exclusive software suite provided to the group by Delcam and Simpleware, British CAD/CAM experts based in Birmingham and Exeter, respectively.
The first full scale demonstrator to be exhibited to the consortium was a 3D printed earth re-entry capsule, which made appropriate use of the complex lattice structures. The internal structure of the component will be further optimized prior to production, in order to make the 3D printed vessel as light as possible. The ultimate goal for the part is to reduce its weight by 50% without compromising on strength.
Another impressive 3D print under development is a thrust nozzle created by Bristol, UK based additive manufacturing firm HiETA. The demonstrator shown at the LIGHT meeting is currently being tested to verify its heat transfer and compression properties. EOS, which is manufacturing the thrust nozzle, has reported a 40% reduction in build time compared to previous versions of the 3D printed component. This reduction was achieved by simply adjusting various parameters of the 3D printer.
The third of the three demonstrators was an airbrake door hinge, developed by Bloodhound SSC. With this design now in the production engineering phase, serious thought has been given to post-processing requirements. Project partner CDRM will start manufacturing the 3D printed part before 2016.
Each of the products shown at the LIGHT consortium have utilized 3D printed lattice structures, thanks to the hard work of Delcam and Simpleware. The two firms developed the dedicated PartBuilder software used to produce such structures, and have made several updates based on feedback from the three additive manufacturing companies. Recent developments to the software have included an updated customer unit cell library (including the introduction of a double lattice gyroid cell), a custom cell filling algorithm, integration of Simpleware DLL symmetry and various upgrades to the user interface.
The PartBuilder updates will be tested and used by the three participating companies as they prepare their final demonstrators. Complex lattice structures seem to be the secret to lightweight 3D printed materials, with several automobile and aircraft manufacturers already using such patterns to produce ultra-lightweight components.
Posted in 3D Printing Application
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