I was an ID student in the early '90s when our Production Methods professor told us about this magic machine being developed for the U.S. Navy. Navy ships, he explained, had to carry a huge amount of spare parts. "The goal is for every ship to be self-sustaining," confirmed my buddy Mike Cinquino, a former Petty Officer 3rd Class on the supply ship U.S.S. Detroit. "The idea is that you can take a missile hit and fix the damage with what's on hand." So each ship has storerooms full of thousands of metal nuts, bolts and pieces in different shapes and sizes, which is necessary—and wasteful. But the magic machine my professor talked about was some sort of newfangled 3D printer sitting next to a hopper full of metal powder; a technician would punch in a part number, dump a predetermined amount of powder in, and the machine would spit the part out. No more shelves lined with parts you'll never need.
Nowadays, of course, Rapid Prototyping machines are a reality. I never learned if the laser sintering machine my professor described became standard Navy issue, but now researchers at the UK's University of Southampton in conjunction with RP firm 3T RPD have adapted laser sintering technology to another military application: producing aircraft.
With its entire structure, including wings, integral control surfaces and access hatches all having been printed on an EOS EOSINT P730 nylon laser sintering machine, which fabricates plastic or metal objects, through a successive layering technique, the SULSA (Southampton University Laser Sintered Aircraft) plane has been designed to function as an unmanned air vehicle (UAV).
...This 3D printed plane was put together without using any fasteners, with all equipment being attached using 'snap fit' techniques. Implementing this technique makes it possible to assemble the entire aircraft in minutes without using any tools.
With a top speed of nearly 100 miles per hour, this electric-powered aircraft has a 2-metres wingspan, is equipped with an autopilot, and in cruise-mode, is said to be almost silent.
Learn more about the SULSA project here.
Even with the WYSIWYG nature of digital photography, setting up lighting for a shoot can be a pain; during the few high-volume projects I shot, I started by photographing the subject under different lighting setups, with a piece of paper in-frame that had notes (aperture, shutter, lighting settings) scribbled on...
Here we go, folks: As reported in Plastics News, researchers have developed skin-mounted electronics and published their findings last week in an issue of the Science journal. What the team of research engineers (from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, led by engineering prof John Rogers) have physically achieved is...
The forthcoming Sifteo Cubes are toys that seek to bridge the gap between physical objects you manipulate, like wooden blocks, and screen-based technology that provides visual cues. Use your hands to move, shake, flip, rotate and neighbor your Sifteo cubes—you'll be entertained and inspired by Sifteo's unique gameplay....We're bringing together...
Dayton, OH-based design studio Real Art Design Group recently had the brief to give their client Welcome to College, a web startup, a real-life identity. The result is MARV, "an RV that is not only the smartest one around, but also has a personality as big as the RV itself."MARV,...
Create a Core77 Account
Already have an account? Sign In
By creating a Core77 account you confirm that you accept the Terms of Use
Please enter your email and we will send an email to reset your password.