Rapid Prototyping Machine

Video courtesy: New Scientist. Original article: www.newscientist.com Wonderful example of 21st technology! TRANSCRIPT: “On three, two, one … launch!” Here in Wiltshire, engineers have just launched the first plane made entirely with a 3D printer. Jim Scanlan and his team designed and printed the aircraft in just a week. In this test, it successfully completes a ten minute flight. Jim Scanlan (Aerospace engineer – University of Southampton): “Remarkable! I am absolutely delighted. And what I am most impressed by is how close the flight characteristics are to the team’s predictions”. To create the plane, the team first produced a computerized design. It was fed to a 3D printer which cut up the model into ultra-thin slices. The layers were then built up from plastic powder, using a laser to carve out and fuse each one’s shape. Jim Scanlan: “The novel aspect of the structure is that it is completely fastener free. In fact, all of the control surfaces have been grown in the laser printing process. So, there are no subsequent assembly operations.” Jim Scanlan: “Right, yeah, to the left …” Even moving parts are printed all at once, making it much easier to produce a plane. The process also makes it simple to tweak a design and re-print it or to create complex structures. Jim Scanlan: “It allows us to explore manufacturing geometry and techniques that are simply too expensive using other techniques. We have a geodetic structure that was used in World War Two on the Vicker’s …

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