It seems ludicrous. Multiple 3D printer heads shoot material at a magical floating nugget that collects the material, layer by layer, and grows into, apparently, an airplane part. I can’t wrap my head around it, but Boeing is very serious. The proposed technology is called “Free-Form Spatial 3-D Printing Using Part Levitation,” and it involves a “nugget” (yes, that is in fact the scientific term) made of printed material that is suspended in space via magnetic fields. Several printer heads surround said nugget and deposit additional printing material onto it from all sides.
“There is a need for an Additive Manufacturing (AM) method and apparatus that eliminates the need for a platform and/or support materials to stabilize the part during the fabrication process, and which removes limitations on the types of features that can be formed, allowing full body 3D printing of complex parts,” Boeing states.
“…The aircraft produced by exemplary method may include an airframe with a plurality of systems and an interior. Examples of high-level systems include one or more of a propulsion system, an electrical system, a hydraulic system, and an environmental system. Any number of other systems may be included.”
I’m not even going to begin to think about the logistics of it all, but it’s really a brilliant proposal. If it comes to fruition and doesn’t disappear into the vast black hole of patent applications, it could be used for any number of industries. 3D printing is already a technology that has done away with many of the limitations of traditional manufacturing, but this process could do away with the limitations of traditional 3D printing. And that would mean a technology that is, well, limitless. You can read the entire patent application here, and Patent Yogi has kindly put together a video to help you visualize how this technology would work. See below. Were you surprised to hear about this? Discuss in the 3D Printed Levitating Object forum over at 3DPB.com.