The 3D Printed Jet Engine video

a reply to: Zaphod58

Yeah didn't GE just open up that new plant for it - for turbine shrouds?

Anyways, CMC = superior (off the charts) thermal and electrical insulation.

Are they lighter in weight too?

a reply to: BASSPLYR

Much lighter. They're testing the first turbine hubs now and are looking at more parts that can be changed out.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Now normally when a turbine hub starts to wear down how much of a hassle is it to order the part, wait for it to arrive (or ship the engine or aircraft to the proper facility) replace said part , reassemble and the safety check the aircraft before it's deemed OK to fly again?

Would be cool to have a GE tech who just hangs out at the base in the aircrafts hangar and makes new parts as needed and it's all done on location with a super fast turn around (respectively). And what sort of advantage would this give our air force if we can repair and service aircraft waaaay faster than the enemy in wartime and get them back out there "playing"

a reply to: BASSPLYR

The getting isn't a problem. We used to ship parts counter to counter when there was an airport near by, and had it on the next commercial flight.

Changing on the other hand can be a bitch. To change just a blade on a B-1 was about four hours counting removing and reinstalling.

To replace a turbine, you have to pretty much tear into the engine which is going to take a couple days.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Still bet it helps to just manufacture the part on site as opposed to having it shipped in to a forward base like guam or even somewhere in the middle east.

Anyways the cool part was the previously mentioned thermal, Electrical resistance and unsurpassed light weight.

How about the homebuilders! You can print out any airplane you want. Maybe a brand new P-51!!!!

I saw a particular filament that is sort of a metal clay that once printed you put it in a Kiln and it comes ourt metal but I only saw bronze as the toughest type.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I still say they need to make all mechanicle objects modularized like the engines in M1s.
Yank a few connections and pull the "pack".

a reply to: BASSPLYR

en.wikipedia.org...

I imagine with alloy mixtures you can make almost anything.
Pretty neat stuff

Compared with other methods of additive manufacturing, SLS can produce parts from a relatively wide range of commercially available powder materials. These include polymers such as nylon (neat, glass-filled, or with other fillers) or polystyrene, metals including steel, titanium, alloy mixtures, and composites and green sand. The physical process can be full melting, partial melting, or liquid-phase sintering. Depending on the material, up to 100% density can be achieved with material properties comparable to those from conventional manufacturing methods. In many cases large numbers of parts can be packed within the powder bed, allowing very high productivity.

Implementing new materials and manufacturing techniques is the boom side of 3D printing.Also means 3D designers have work for a long long time..

I talked to somebody about this once as I do 3D modeling and think turbine engines are neat. (Was some side conversation with how no hobbyist has yet to build a small scale axial-flow engine, and whether it would be possible.) Thing was the guy I was talking to wanted and needed more engineering type stuff, and my knowledge (although not all terrible) is on the visualization side. (And 3D modeling software isn't CAD software, despite many similiarities.) Might get close enough with lucky guessing to have something work, but unlike a proper engineer - no guarantees on anything. I was honest, even if it means taking a pass on what may have been a really cool project. Was an interesting discussion none the less.

The stuff needed to do good quality 3D printing like this with metal sintering is upward of $40,000. Of course it's still possible to do metals much much cheaper by printing with wax and doing lost wax casting, but then you have those problems with all the things that have to be done to ensure a good casting. This is why much of the hobbyist realm in 3D printing still deals with plastics, and even then it's still on the expensive side.

In the case of making a jet engine with sintering, it's also GE, they have plenty of knowledge and experience that the average joe knows next to nothing about. Somebody with lots of money to blow could still do it, but it probably wouldn't be half as good.

I also have some ideas on 3D printing with some kind of MIG process (not too different than how plastic printing works other than using welding rod stuff in an enclosed evacuated chamber), but I'm sure I'm not alone in that either. (The approach seems plenty obvious.) However that's probably crude compared to both sintering and lost-wax. I suspect faster and cheaper than either, but would need machining for fit/finish, yet should have much less waste than milling completely from solid blanks.

This technology is amazing but concerns me at the same time considering I rebuild the blades for a living. If the military started just printing new blades we would be out of business in a week. Just curious how does the composite they use compare the titanium that's in use? I just can't imagine a composite blade taking impact as well as titanium. I've seen thousands of bird strikes and serious debris damage but the blades stay in one piece, mainly just bending slightly. For some reason I just see composite in the same situation exploding, but I obviously dont know the strength of this composite so if someone could fill me in I would appreciate it.

a reply to: 772STi

I don't think you should worry now.

But I'd keep an eye on this for sure.

I'm assuming it's great for rapid prototyping. However I'd be wary about using this on production craft.

a reply to: 772STi

This was more a "Hey, I wonder if this would work" thing. GE decided to experiment and see if they could do it on a small scale. They're a long way from printing fan blades. CMCs are another matter though.

The beauty of the printing is the internal structures can be played with so minute cooling passages can be put in or tricky things can be done to aid airflow.Also truss designs can be incorporated for lessening stress loads in rotating masses.