Welcome to building 15. This is a fabrication hub for APL. We're reading mechanical fabrication
Additive manufacturing, which is better known as 3d printing and engineering materials. Let me show you around
This is mechanical fabrication, this is where we do things like machining, welding, and sheet metal fabrication
This five axis vertical turning machine is one of the many ways that APL is investing in the future of manufacturing
This machine allows us to address next generation sponsor needs like hypersonics and space
Currently I am working on a fixture for the space department is a gimbal housing this machine
This gives us the capability to run all four operations in one setup which saves a lot of time
Thanks, Paul.
Mechanical fabrication isn't just machining
It's also things like our sheet metal shop where we use techniques like welding, laser cutting, and forming to create large assemblies
Down here we do much more than production. We also do research and engineering
One of the great examples of this is the human surrogate torso. This torso manages to combine multiple techniques down here
We have additive manufacturing. We have composites we have instrumentation
We have polymers. All in order to evaluate the impact of ballistics through armor, and on our personnel in the field
One of the critical technologies behind this is 3D printing. Let's come take a look.
Hey Avrami, why don't you tell us a little bit about 3D printing? This is our SLS machine it produces
Glass filled nylon parts like this where you can see the layer lines. The resolution is very high
so the parts come out really smooth the glass phenylene is one of the
Strongest polymer materials that we have here at the lab
we also do metal and amongst other types of materials in other machines and we
collaborate with people across the lab for research and design and
Fabrication. Thanks Avrami. Let's go take a look at composites
Hey Ron, won't you tell us a little bit about engineering materials? Certainly! So down here in the composite slab
We primarily deal with PMC's or polymer matrix composites
We use different resins such as epoxies, cyanate esters,
We use
Reinforcements like carbon fibers, glass fibers, Kevlar fibers. So this for example is a fiberglass
Impregnated fabric and it is impregnated with an epoxy resin
And we can build different structures. This is super drape-able. We can achieve complex geometries
This is a carbon fiber part that we built for a telescope. Another application is a carbon fiber bracket
That was used on a spacecraft it however does not use a unidirectional
Product but a woven product and with these products you can achieve geometry something like this
We're not just limited to polymers and composites though. We can also 3D print metal.
This machine is another one of the ways that APL is investing in the future of manufacturing.
This metal additive manufacturing machine gives us the capabilities to do materials
and geometries that were impossible to do previously.
Things like lattices
complex lightweight structures, or topology optimized parts
Which take their inspiration from nature to create strong stiff parts
Or hybrid approaches that take the best of machining and combine them with this new technology to do things we couldn't do before