Electron Beam Free-Form Fabrication (EBF3)

    Is a new manufacturing technology recently invented by NASA scientists. This technology has already been tested in zero gravity.     
     EBF3 is not a prototyping process. EBF3 creates metal products that astronauts in space and people here on earth might use right out of the machine.

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Hydroforming

     The industrial process of forming materials by water pressure is called hydroforming.  This process has played a role in manufacturing for at least a half a century.

    
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Intelligent  Robots

     Today's fully automated manufacturing facilities often transport and process materials into products without any human intervention. Since the machines can't see the materials that they are processing, manufacturers often turn off the lights in the manufacturing area to save money.

    
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The Airbus 380

     The plane generates only half the noise of a 747. It is very fuel efficient burning twelve percent less fuel per passenger than a 747. By placing more people on a single airplane Airbus feels it can actually reduce aircraft overload at airports.

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METEC's
Financially Sustainable
Recycling

     Wouldn't it be amazing if someone came up with an un-manufacturing process that could turn old products into manufactured, and processed materials?

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Rapid Prototyping
& Manufacturing


    With the first pass the laser solidifies the outer shape directly out of the photo-sensitive material on the surface of the vat. The laser then moves in to solidify all the solid areas in that layer.

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Friction-Stir Welding

     The Friction-Stir Welding process welds metals without melting them. It works on metals including aluminum, a metal that cannot easily be joined using other metal fusion processes.
     NASA engineers have recently reengineered this technology so that it can now be used on materials that vary in thickness and even weld objects with very complex shapes.

    
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Baxter the Unconventional Robot
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       Baxter the unconventional robot writes its own programming code. Baxter is a new type of robot, with toy-like features, that has been designed to work next to people.
     Baxter was created by Rodney Brooks the former director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Before he established Rethink Robotics and created Baxter, he founded iRobot. A company that builds consumer robotic cleaning machines, military warrior bots, and rescue robots. Rodney Brooks is called the go-to guy for artificial intelligence, computer vision, and robotics.

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     You learned in science that vulcanization is a process that changes the structure of rubber, making it indestructible. The Fraunhofer Institute of Germany and two American companies have demonstrated that they can turn old vulcanized rubber tires into a powder that can once again be bonded together by the heat and pressure of an extrusion machine or the injection molding process. The full story tells how they are now starting to turn old rubber particles into new high quality products.

    
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Reversing the Vulcanization Process
Reversing the Rubber Vulcanization Process
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3D Printing From:
The Simple to the Complex


     Today General Electric’s aviation division and NASA are both creating engine parts on a 3D-printer. Their industrial 3D-printing process is called Additive Manufacturing. It is a 3D printing machine on steroids. The parts that they are producing can handle 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
     On the do it yourself side of 3D printing you can make just about anything even if you don't own a 3D printer. Read the full story to learn how. This technology is now being used to create tools, weapons, machine parts, and food. In high tech medical laboratories it is actually being used to create human tissues and organs for transplantation. This column describes (Click Here) how and what 3D Printing could do in 2013.
     The changes since then have been dramatic and this link shows you what 3D printing is doing today.

 
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     A technology that has only existed since 1983 is now changing manufacturing, construction, biotechnology, medical technology, nanotechnology, and even making it possilbe to print food from lab grown cells. It is disrupting all of the above while staying true to its simple definition of creating three dimensional objects from digital files one thin layer at a time. It went from a new way of building models and prototypes to a new way of building anything.
     This metamorphous occurred when 3D printing expanded from printing plastic to printing metals,concrete, biological cells, organs, and even food. 3D printing can create parts that are lighter than but just as strong as the same part created by older methods of fabrication. See photo 1.  In many technology areas 3D printing is becoming the manufacturing process. This change to additive manufacturing is accelerating in the areas of healthcare, aerospace, automotive, energy, and even consumer goods.
     The images that are shown here are from the column and they show some of the objects that are being 3D printed today. As always the full column includes so much more than just the synopsis and also  "Taking it a Step Further" - activities for students.
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3D Printing is Changing How Everything is Made
3D Printing Primed to Change the Future
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Providing Resources on New & Emerging Tech for Technology Literacy
Alan J. Pierce EdD
          
pierceaj@techtoday.us
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