Browse Topic: Advanced manufacturing
ABSTRACT Midé Technology Corporation (Midé), a Hutchinson company, in collaboration with The University of Texas at Austin (UTA), have investigated the potential for novel negative stiffness (NS)-based structures as blast resistant vehicle panels. Protecting vehicles from blast shockwaves would ideally minimize added weight and maximize reusability. Homogenous metal panels provide such protection but without the benefit of reusability, absorbing energy via plastic deformation, while also adding significant weight to a vehicle, thereby sacrificing mobility. Although various emergent approaches, including the use of hexagonal honeycombs and auxetic materials, have proved promising in terms of higher energy absorption per unit mass, such approaches also rely on plastic deformation additionally suffering from the drawback of occasionally transmitting a higher peak force as compared to the incident
ABSTRACT Today’s combat vehicle designs are largely constrained by traditional manufacturing processes, such as machining, welding, casting, and forging. Recent advancements in 3D-Printing technology offer tremendous potential to provide economical, optimized components by eliminating fundamental process limitations. The ability to re-design suitable components for 3D-printing has potential to significantly reduce cost, weight, and lead-time in a variety of Defense & Aerospace applications. 3D-printing will not completely replace traditional processes, but instead represents a new tool in our toolbox - from both a design and a manufacturing standpoint
ABSTRACT The University of Delaware (UD) and the US Army DEVCOM-GVSC (GVSC) have partnered to show the feasibility of fabricating mission specific, man-packable, autonomous vehicles that are created by Computer Aided Design (CAD) and are then produced, from start-to-finish, in a single manufacturing unit-cell without human intervention in the manufacturing process. This unit-cell contains many manufacturing processes (e.g., additive manufacturing (AM), pick-and-place, circuit printing, and subtractive manufacturing) that work in concert to fabricate functional devices. Together, UD and GVSC have developed the very first mission specific autonomous vehicle that is fully fabricated in a single manufacturing unit-cell without being touched by human hand. Citation: Jacob W. Robinson, Thomas W. Lum, Zachary J. Larimore, Matthew P. Ludkey, Larry (LJ) R. Holmes, Jr. “AUTOMATED MANUFACTURING FOR AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS SOLUTIONS (AMASS)”, In Proceedings of the Ground Vehicle Systems Engineering and
ABSTRACT The key to vehicle survivability in a combat or otherwise hostile environment is the capability to quickly resupply critical parts. Rapid production of hard to obtain components within the theater of operations can significantly increase the availability of combat vehicles or other equipment. Additive manufacturing enables significant reduction in lead time for these components and thus offers an enhancement of combat capability. However, AM operations have specific environmental and support requirements in order to function. In partnership with CESI and CAPSA, AddUp has developed a unique concept of a “modular plant” called the Anywhere Additive Factory. The unit can be adjusted to meet the manufacturing requirements and volumes needed, while also being easily dismantled and moved to another location. Citation: S. Pexton, “The FlexCare Deployable Additive Manufacturing Printing Facility”, In Proceedings of the Ground Vehicle Systems Engineering and Technology Symposium
ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the application of a novel Additive Molding™ process in the design optimization of a combat vehicle driver’s seat structure. Additive Molding™ is a novel manufacturing process that combines three-dimensional design flexibility of additive manufacturing with a high-volume production rate compression molding process. By combining the lightweighting benefits of topology optimization with the high strength and stiffness of tailored continuous carbon fiber reinforcements, the result is an optimized structure that is lighter than both topology-optimized metal additive manufacturing and traditional composites manufacturing. In this work, a combat vehicle driver’s seatback structure was optimized to evaluate the weight savings when converting the design from a baseline aluminum seat structure to a carbon fiber / polycarbonate structure. The design was optimized to account for mobility loads and a 95-percentile male soldier, and the result was a reduction in
ABSTRACT Gas metal arc pulse directed energy deposition (GMA-P DED) offers large-scale additive manufacturing (AM) capabilities and lower cost systems compared to laser or electron beam DED. These advantages position GMA-DED as a promising manufacturing process for widespread industrial adoption. To enable this “digital” manufacturing of a component from a computer-aided design (CAD) file, a computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) solver is necessary to generate build plans and utilize welding parameter sets based on feature and application requirements. Scalable and robot-agnostic computer-aided robotics (CAR) software is therefore essential to provide automated toolpath generation. This work establishes the use of Autodesk PowerMill Ultimate software as a CAM/CAR solution for arc-based DED processes across robot manufacturers. Preferred aluminum GMA-P DED welding parameters were developed for single-pass wide “walls” and multi-pass wide “blocks” that can be configured to build a wide
ABSTRACT A 3D printed battery bracket is strengthened via post-print thermal annealing, demonstrating a transitionable approach for additive manufacturing of robust, high performance thermoplastic components. Citation: E. D. Wetzel, R. Dunn, L. J. Holmes, K. Hart, J. Park, and M. Ludkey, “Thermally Annealed, High Strength 3D Printed Thermoplastic Battery Bracket for M998,” In Proceedings of the Ground Vehicle Systems Engineering and Technology Symposium (GVSETS), NDIA, Novi, MI, Aug. 16-18, 2022
ABSTRACT The United States Army is leveraging Advanced Manufacturing (AdvM) methods to solve both operational and tactical readiness gaps. AdvM includes not only Additive Manufacturing (AM), but also traditional manufacturing capabilities in the field and at Army production facilities. The Tank-Armaments and automotive Command (TACOM) and the Ground Vehicles Systems Center (GVSC) Materials-AdvM Branch have developed a strategy of five critical path key words oriented on three Lines of Effort (LOE) that enables a disciplined process to deliver final use qualified parts manufactured by the Organic Industrial Base (OIB) as an alternate source of supply that will improve readiness of TACOM’s combat and tactical wheeled fleets. Additionally, an alternate critical path has been developed to provide limited use parts for Battle Damage and Repair (BDAR). Citation: P. Burton, N. Kott, A. Kruz, A. Batjer, “Path to 450 Parts Qualified for Advanced Manufacturing”, In Proceedings of the Ground
This work aims to define a novel integration of 6 DOF robots with an extrusion-based 3D printing framework that strengthens the possibility of implementing control and simulation of the system in multiple degrees of freedom. Polylactic acid (PLA) is used as an extrusion material for testing, which is a thermoplastic that is biodegradable and is derived from natural lactic acid found in corn, maize, and the like. To execute the proposed framework a virtual working station for the robot was created in RoboDK. RoboDK interprets G-code from the slicing (Slic3r) software. Further analysis and experiments were performed by FANUC 2000ia 165F Industrial Robot. Different tests were performed to check the dimensional accuracy of the parts (rectangle and cylindrical). When the robot operated at 20% of its maximum speed, a bulginess was observed in the cylindrical part, causing the radius to increase from 1 cm to 1.27 cm and resulting in a thickness variation of 0.27 cm at the bulginess location
Scientists have developed an innovative wearable fabric that is flexible but can stiffen on demand. Developed through a combination of geometric design, 3D printing, and robotic control, the new technology, RoboFabric, can quickly be made into medical devices or soft robotics
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