Mike
Space Pioneer
Posts: 82
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Post by Mike on Jul 5, 2017 22:44:38 GMT
3D Printers is hot trend right now. If such device, could "print" another copy of itself (I'm talking about elements, not ready product), from materials found on Colony location, that would ensure unlimited local manufacturing powers for Colony. We don't need much precision, it can be large, and unwieldy, as long, as it can clone itself, and "print" more useful elements.
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Post by phicksur on Jul 6, 2017 21:21:57 GMT
A printer can only print something it can fit inside itself. As a result, it might be able to print pieces that could then be assembled, but it couldn't be self-reproducing like that unless it was also capable of the precise manipulation required to physically assemble the parts.
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Post by bigred on Jul 7, 2017 1:05:09 GMT
not quite true phicksur. Material can be fed into a printer and it can print outside of itself (see the concrete blend printer). The problem of course is the environment it is printing in might have no atmospheric pressure or noticeable gravity. Also, correct me if I'm wrong but Mike's suggestion was about printing components and components are not necessarily very big. The difficulty of course mike is once again the environment that the components were to be placed in. Currently we don't have any commercially available printers which print in anything but plasticised material. This is not always the best for an environment with no atmospheric pressure as the volatiles and moisture sublime or boil out of the product. Another difficulty is that the product in this environment must have all atmosphere squeezed out of it or it will crack when placed in a non-pressurised environment. this is yet to be invented in 3D printing however it might be possible to put the entire printing chamber under pressure duding the printing process. What is really needed for 3D printing to be super helpful for products in a non-pressurised and radiation rich environment is a method of 3D printing of metal. This would require very high temp heating and pressure during printing. I don't think this is impossible given the current tech levels, but it does need some thought and testing. There are proven methods for generating the heat from solar and electrical means and there are methods for transporting and handling molten metals in controlled environments however these are somewhat indsutrial. How do you keep the nozzles clean? How do you keep the metal flowing the way you want it to? How do you not melt the pipes carrying the molten metal? The current thinking for 3D printing is not really on an industrial scale. In my mind this thinking needs to be changed and the guys that deal with metals and concrete need to be involved not some orbital physicist or an engineer who has only worked on single use ultra light systems for the current space industry.
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Mike
Space Pioneer
Posts: 82
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Post by Mike on Jul 9, 2017 12:21:26 GMT
Yeah, despite what they show on internet, 3D Printers can only print separate, static components. You have to assemble them manually later. They aren't that different from ink printers actually, it's more like printing image, and then another image on top of it, and another, and another... I don't think there can be actual "air" inside "print", because it is made dot per dot basis. Maybe if print will be made so quickly, that several dots are put at the same time, some "air" can be trapped inside. Probably not problem in vacuum, but here I don't know how material will behave during cool off. It seems Mars will be actually good for such experiments, as it have atmosphere, and gravitation to use standard method. Printing from metal is good idea, but what kind of metal you can produce from extracted minerals from Moon/Mars?
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petrv
Space Pioneer
Posts: 93
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Post by petrv on Jul 9, 2017 23:11:21 GMT
Hi, there are some projects like NASA´s SpiderFab which plans to build big/huge underlying objects like large scale solar arrays, antennas, connection structures etc, made of composite structures using high performance fiber reinforced polymers.
Also MadeInSpace who is specialised to 3Dprinting in extreme conditions already works on their´s Tac3D adaptation for space/vacuum printing through special vacuum-compatible extrusion heads. They are working on NASA´s Archinaut project, which "is designed to develop the necessary technologies and subsystems which will enable the first additive manufacturing, aggregation, and assembly of large and complex systems in space without astronaut extravehicular activity."
So the technology is being developed already, but as commercial subjects are part of it I do not expect the tech will be published completely, but at least there are some "industrial partners" available...
"Made In Space demonstrated gravity-independent metal casting during its participation in the FOP. Using a proprietary method called Forced Metal Deposition (FMD), molten metal is cast into a 3D printed mold to form metal objects. Though this may sound similar to traditional, Earth-bound metal casting, performing it in microgravity is quite different. The arrival of this cornerstone terrestrial manufacturing technology to space allows parts to be produced in space in a well-known fashion, accelerating the adoption of this technology. It also unlocks the potential for making entirely new kinds of metal alloys and structural designs that are not possible on Earth. "
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Mike
Space Pioneer
Posts: 82
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Post by Mike on Jul 12, 2017 19:24:58 GMT
Ah yes, very interesting. Indeed "printing" in 0G creates interesting opportunity, although I can not think of anything useful right now, except some fragile art objects. Maybe Solar Sails?
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petrv
Space Pioneer
Posts: 93
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Post by petrv on Jul 12, 2017 21:39:46 GMT
Most interesting on 0G printing is that you don´t need to print any supporting structures for complicated prints...
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petrv
Space Pioneer
Posts: 93
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Post by petrv on Sept 16, 2017 16:13:06 GMT
But apart of Archinaut, large 3Dp is mostly intended for printing of lunar/martian surface habitats, so some (weak) gravity assisted printing...
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