airbus explores building planesxa0with giant 3d printersxa0- updated with video
by:Tuowei2019-09-11
[ Update the video as follows] We already know 3D. Printing has completely changed the way we make everyday items from Lego bricks, chocolate and artificial liver of the human body of the car. But if the \"printer\" itself is able to zoom in enough to accommodate a structure as large as an airplane, the scale of this change can be much larger. Bastian Schaefer, a cabin engineer at Airbus, has been working for the past two years to develop a concept cabin that, from the passenger\'s point of view, can foresee the future of the flight. This creates a radical concept: building the aircraft itself from scratch with a 3D printer, which is actually very large. As big as an airplane hangar. This may sound like a long process as the largest 3D printerstoday is about the size of a table. But the design of Airbus started in 3D. Now print the widget and pass to about 2050 of the entire plane. Why do you want to use 3D printing? Airbus has been studying the use of this process known as additive layer manufacturing to make aircraft, as it may be cheaper and can produce components that are 65% lighter than conventional manufacturing methods. Airbus\'s concept aircraft is also very complex and requires radical manufacturing methods: from a curved fuselage to a bionic structure, a panoramic transparent skin that gives passengers the sky and the clouds around them. \"It has to be about 80 by 80 metres,\" said the final Schaefer, however --to-be- Create a 3D printer. \"This may be feasible. \"UPDATE - This is a video produced at this year\'s Farnborough air show detailing the high levels of sustainability Technical features of concept plane: 3D printing technology has been around for a while, and there are many innovators driving 3D printing technology in extraordinary ways. Some of the largest structures come from Enrico Dini, the behind-the-scenes black hand of Monolite UK, who has been using 3D printing technology for years to mold sand and inorganic adhesives into large housesLike structure. Dini claims his 3D printer, the so-called D- The biggest shape in the world. One of the biggest challenges of scaling up 3D printing is funding and regulation. Dini worked hard for his big- Large-scale printing projects resulting from the global financial crisis; His story is told in the upcoming documentary, the man who sold the house. \"At the same time, Airbus needs to design the aircraft through strict aircraft regulations before it can use this process to make aircraft components. One reason for the small start is: by the end of this year, Airbus will update certain cabin brackets for the A380, which is the first Airbus company to use 3D- Printing components. A new model of a military aircraft \"European Typhoon\" has already included non- The structural part of its air The air-conditioning equipment for 3D printing, says Schaefer. Another challenge is how to integrate the right materials. The bionic structure of this Airbus concept aircraft needs materials that are not yet available, for exampleyet- Transparent aluminum of the fuselage, certain bio-polymers and other materials reinforced by carbon nanotubes. But the 3D printer is here again. It is said that there is only one 3D printer in the world that can be printed in multiple materials at the same time, which is made by an Israeli private company called Objet. David Benjamin, partner at Life Building in New York, said Material printers like Objet allow designers to try different materials. \"You can dial in different elastic properties of an object, different color properties, or a piece of continuous material that has different properties on one piece,\" said Benjamin, who saved the sample, in some parts are flexible translucent plastic plates, created with custom Autodesk software and 3D printers. \"Certain parts of the aircraft may need to be powerful and flexible, and the 3D printer can create a\" powerful object, right where it needs to be powerful, \"he said \", or lighting where lighting is needed. \"If you imagine that cake icing is squeezed through the tube, then the nozzle, it\'s not far from how 3D printing works except that the tube moves on X, y, Z-axis. Combining materials together is a problem of using two nozzles together, such as combining aluminum with polyurethane in one run. \"In theory, this is not impossible,\" said Benjamin . \" He specializes in the study of the combination of synthetic biology and architectural design. \"You can design new products that are not all solid or all aluminum but composite. You\'re designing new substances. \"The biggest challenge is scale,\" said Benjamin. If you can get a room large enough and a gantry large enough to move the nozzle- Technically known as extruder- Just like a very precise device version for mobile containers, you can make a 3D printed version of anything. The Objet printer itself is limited in size and the printed object is not higher than 2 feet, Benjamin added. EADS has been trying 3D printing last year and is known for printing \"Airbike. Schaefer, who has worked at Airbus for six years, began working on the transparent concept cabin project in 2010, approximately in conjunction with the Airbike project, and visited colleagues in different departments of Airbus. \"We have a chance to do something different,\" he told them . \". He and other industrial designersand trend- The Scouts began to brainstorm and came up with the current concept design of 3D printing. He has about 10 people working with him on the project, including industrial designers and tech scouts, who are all trying to move the technology forward. \"Now we want to make bigger parts in the medium term. \"The term is until 2013,\" Schaefer said . \". \"Printed parts of the seat or other structural parts in the cabin, we have 20 years to scale. \"3D printing needs to be pushed. The technology has a history of more than 20 years, but before we look at it on the scale that Basti and others have foreseen, it could be at least 20 years away.