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ORNL collaborated with NASA to 3D-print a lunar rover wheel based mostly on a NASA design.
The challenge demonstrated the potential of additive manufacturing for creating extremely specialised elements wanted for house exploration.
NASA plans to check the printed wheel’s efficiency to check with a historically manufactured wheel that shall be used on the moon subsequent yr.
The ORNL-printed wheel prototype was in a position to incorporate extra design options and complexity right into a single piece, whereas taking much less time and manpower to make.
Researchers on the Division of Vitality’s Oak Ridge Nationwide Laboratory, in collaboration with NASA, are taking additive manufacturing to the ultimate frontier by 3D-printing the identical sort of wheel because the design utilized by NASA for its robotic lunar rover, demonstrating the know-how for specialised elements wanted for house exploration.
Members of the staff that printed the rover wheel prototype show the end in entrance of the laser powder mattress printer the place it was created within the MDF. Credit score: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Vitality
The additively manufactured wheel was modeled on the present, lightweight wheels of the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, a cellular robotic NASA plans to ship in 2024 to map ice and different potential sources on the south pole of the moon. The mission is meant to assist decide the origin and distribution of the moon’s water and whether or not sufficient might be harvested from the moon’s floor to help folks dwelling there.
Whereas the prototype wheel printed at DOE’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility, or MDF, at ORNL is not going to truly be used on the NASA Moon mission, it was created to fulfill the identical design specs because the wheels made for NASA’s VIPER. Further testing is deliberate to validate the design and fabrication technique earlier than utilizing this know-how for future lunar or Mars rovers or contemplating it for different house functions, similar to massive structural parts.
Additive manufacturing can scale back power use, materials waste and lead time, whereas enabling design complexity and the tailoring of fabric properties. MDF is on the forefront of this effort, growing the know-how for over a decade for a variety of functions within the clear power, transportation and manufacturing sectors. MDF researchers printed the rover wheel prototype at ORNL in Fall 2022. A specialised 3D printer used two coordinated lasers and a rotating construct plate to selectively soften steel powder into the designed form.
Regardless of enabling a extra advanced spoke sample and spoke locking options for the wheel, 3D-printing simplified and lowered the price of the wheel design and made closing meeting simpler. Credit score: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Vitality
Additive manufacturing can scale back power use, materials waste and lead time, whereas enabling design complexity and the tailoring of fabric properties. MDF is on the forefront of this effort, growing the know-how for over a decade for a variety of functions within the clear power, transportation and manufacturing sectors. MDF researchers printed the rover wheel prototype at ORNL in Fall 2022. A specialised 3D printer used two coordinated lasers and a rotating construct plate to selectively soften steel powder into the designed form.
Typical steel powder mattress methods function in steps: In a machine the scale of a cupboard, they rake a layer of powder over a stationary plate. Then a laser selectively melts a layer earlier than the plate lowers barely and the method repeats. The printer used for the rover wheel prototype is massive sufficient for an individual to enter and is exclusive in its skill to print massive objects whereas the steps happen concurrently and constantly, mentioned Peter Wang, who leads MDF improvement of recent laser powder mattress fusion methods.
Additive manufacturing permits high quality design particulars, similar to wavy tread on a domed form, to be included into the prototype lunar wheel. Credit score: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Vitality
“This dramatically will increase the manufacturing charge with the identical quantity of laser energy,” he mentioned, including that deposition happens 50% quicker. “We’re solely scratching the floor of what the system can do. I actually suppose that is going to be the way forward for laser powder mattress printing, particularly at massive scale and in mass manufacturing.” Wang and challenge staff members not too long ago printed a examine, discovered right here, analyzing the scalability of the know-how for printing parts like electrical motors.
Though the machine is exclusive, a key to the success of the challenge was researchers’ experience in course of automation and machine management. They used software program developed at ORNL to “slice” the wheel design into vertical layers, then steadiness the workload between the 2 lasers to print evenly, reaching a excessive manufacturing charge, leveraging a computational approach not too long ago submitted for patent safety.
ORNL researchers on the MDF monitored the printing of the prototype lunar wheel as two lasers melted steel powder to construct it up, layer by layer. Credit score: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Vitality
The prototype wheel, one of many first elements produced by the system, demonstrates the worth of interagency collaboration. “The challenge with NASA actually propelled the know-how ahead,” mentioned Brian Gibson, the researcher who led the rover wheel challenge for ORNL, calling it a milestone. “It was nice to attach a functionality with a growing want, and the staff was excited to be making a prototype element with house exploration functions.”
In just some days, ORNL researchers used powder mattress printing to create this lunar rover wheel based mostly on a NASA design. Credit score: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Vitality
The prototype wheel, one of many first elements produced by the system, demonstrates the worth of interagency collaboration. “The challenge with NASA actually propelled the know-how ahead,” mentioned Brian Gibson, the researcher who led the rover wheel challenge for ORNL, calling it a milestone. “It was nice to attach a functionality with a growing want, and the staff was excited to be making a prototype element with house exploration functions.”
Product of a nickel-based alloy, the prototype wheel is about 8 inches extensive and 20 inches in diameter — a lot bigger than typical elements printed with steel powder mattress methods. Making it required the flexibility to print small geometric options unfold over a big work space. Additive manufacturing enabled better complexity within the rim design with out added value or manufacturing issue, Gibson mentioned.
As compared, the 4 VIPER wheels that may churn by way of moon mud subsequent yr required a number of manufacturing processes and meeting steps. VIPER’s 50-piece wheel rim is held along with 360 riveted joints. The manufacturing course of required sophisticated and time-intensive machining in an effort to meet the mission’s rigorous necessities.
If NASA testing proves the 3D-printed prototype to be as sturdy as conventionally constructed wheels, future rovers may as a substitute use a single printed wheel rim, which took ORNL 40 hours to fabricate. By means of the challenge, ORNL and NASA engineers additionally explored printing exact design options, similar to angled sidewalls, a domed form and wavy tread to extend the wheel’s stiffness. These traits are troublesome to include within the present VIPER wheel design utilizing conventional fabrication strategies. Regardless of enabling a extra advanced spoke sample and spoke locking options to the wheel, 3D printing simplified and lowered the price of the wheel design and made closing meeting simpler.
“Numerous these wheel options have been put in simply to spotlight what you are able to do with additive manufacturing,” mentioned Richard Hagen, a mechanical design engineer for NASA and additive manufacturing lab supervisor at NASA’s Johnson House Middle in Houston. “It helps you to simply implement design options which can be onerous to implement with conventional tooling or perhaps a historically machined half.” ORNL’s skill to print massive objects demonstrates the potential of additive manufacturing know-how for producing a lot bigger rover wheels for each lunar and Martian missions, Hagen mentioned.
A problem is that the specialised printer solely builds with sure supplies — on this case, a nickel-based alloy — so the 3D-printed wheel is 50% heavier than the aluminum VIPER wheel, whereas printed at the same thickness.
NASA plans to check the 3D-printed wheel’s efficiency on a rover both within the rock yard at NASA’s Johnson House Middle or in an enormous “sandbox” of simulated lunar rocks and soil at a contracted check facility. Evaluators will assess the wheel’s maneuverability, pivoting resistance, sideways slippage, slope climbing and different efficiency metrics.
Hagen mentioned additive manufacturing presents the benefit of speedy design updates in response to testing. It could actually additionally incorporate extra complexity, similar to a suspension system, with out including weak factors.
Hagen mentioned crewed analysis stations positioned on the moon as a part of the company’s Artemis Program will want off-planet manufacturing functionality. “With the ability to construct elements in house for repairs shall be essential, since you simply can’t take sufficient spares,” he mentioned. “Powder, pellets or filament for printing are lots simpler to pack and would enable for extra flexibility.”
“Additive manufacturing presents the pliability that in case you have the feedstock, you could possibly make any substitute half you want, whether or not in house or on Earth,” Gibson mentioned. This can be a cause additive manufacturing has generated important curiosity for a spread of substitute wants, from quickly manufactured tooling to hard-to-source castings and forgings. For house exploration and habitation, 3D printers may finally use native materials from the moon or Mars as a feedstock.
Different ORNL researchers concerned within the challenge embrace Jay Reynolds, Gordon Robertson, Greg Larsen, Jamie Stump, Michael Borish, Chris Ledford, Ryan Dehoff and former ORNL workers member Charles Wade, with technical help from Ryan Duncan and Jeremy Malmstead. The analysis was funded by NASA and DOE’s Superior Supplies and Manufacturing Applied sciences Workplace, or AMMTO, and happened at DOE’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at ORNL. The ability is residence to the MDF Consortium, a nationwide group of collaborators working with ORNL to advance state-of-the-art manufacturing applied sciences within the U.S. below the steerage of AMMTO.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Division of Vitality’s Workplace of Science, the only largest supporter of fundamental analysis within the bodily sciences in the US. The Workplace of Science is working to handle a few of the most urgent challenges of our time. For extra info, please go to power.gov/science.
Article courtesy of Oak Ridge Nationwide Laboratory.
Contact: Greg Cunningham cunninghamgs@ornl.gov
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