We’re taking care of business first in today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, followed by a story about 3D printed glasses and then moving on into the aerospace sector. 3YOURMIND is sharing a preview of its upcoming virtual AM Summit, and Rize published a new case study. TriPro 3D Technology introduced a new 3D printer, and a doctor at the Beijing Tongren Hospital is hoping to correct patients’ vision with 3D printed glasses. Launcher completed another test for its 3D printed rocket engine, a 3D modeler put a lot of work into creating a 3D printed NASA helmet, and engineers at NASA’s Ames Research Center created a 3D printable model of its flying telescope.
3YOURMIND Presenting Virtual AM Summit
The AM Summit’s website states, “Learn how to get started with 3D design, identify your first successful business cases, and how to optimize workflows like leading companies around the world do. Participate in the digital conference online from your desk and chat in real time with the audience and the experts”
Rize Presents Customer Case Study
“I put Rize One right next to my desk, so I can use it all the time. It’s so easy, anyone can use it,” Black said.
“We’re finding creative new uses every day for our Rize 3D printer.”
NHF is now enjoying a 15% increase in production speed and $200,000 cost savings per year on fixtures.
TriPro Introduces Industrial 3D Printer
“We highly recommend this machine for designing, for manufacturing, prototyping, importance of functional and parts manufacturing,” said Achilles from TriPro.
3D Printed Glasses for Correcting Vision
At the Beijing Tongren Hospital in China, Dr. Song Hongxin is working to create customized 3D printed glasses with a free-form surface to help people with deformed corneas correct their vision. Free-form surface lenses, which can fit differently shaped corneas, can help with the symptoms of an eye disorder called keratoconus, which can result in symptoms like astigmatism, blurred vision, and nearsightedness.Dr. Song, who was inspired by the adaptive optical system of NASA, explained, “Normal corneas have a smooth and convex surface, while their (keratoconus patients’) corneas are bumpy with many irregular concaves.”
While traditionally made glasses aren’t always customizable, and can be expensive when they are, 3D printing allows physicians to customize glasses more accurately to fit a patient’s cornea.
Launcher Completes Hot-Fire Test
During the 30 second test, Launcher achieved its highest “performance and temperature mix ratio for LOX/RP-1” and reached a combustion temperature of about 6,000°F, which is over twice the melting point temperature of its 3D printed Inconel 718 combustion chamber.
3D Printed NASA Helmet
“Darrell came to my attention last year because he’s ludicrously prolific and incredibly facile at 3D printing and model making and ambitious in his scope,” Savage said in the new video.
“In our ongoing collaboration, Darrell will continue to deliver some videos for Tested.com, including this one, in which I commissioned Darrell to make a space helmet for me.”
It’s not just any space helmet either – Savage is working to replicate the orange Advanced Crew Escape Suit (ACES), also called a pumpkin suit. This full pressure suit was worn by Space Shuttle crews after STS-65, and Darrell adapted a high-fidelity model that Savage purchased in order to make the helmet 3D printable. It took over 100 hours of 3D printing to create the helmet – you can check out the full process in the video below.
3D Printable SOFIA Flying Telescope Model
Engineers at the Ames Research Center have made a 3D printable eight-piece model of NASA’s flying telescope SOFIA, which stands for Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy. The SOFIA telescope was built into a modified Boeing 747 wide-body jetliner, and flies at altitudes of up to 45,000 feet in order to observe the objects that fill our universe, like black holes, comets, and stars, from the stratosphere. The 3D printable SOFIA model, which includes a mini version of the real SOFIA’s 106″ reflecting telescope, was built to a scale of 1/200, making it just under a foot long.The digital files to 3D print your own SOFIA model are free to download.
“SOFIA flies higher than commercial jetliners to get above 99 percent of the water vapor in Earth’s atmosphere, which blocks infrared light from reaching the ground. This is why SOFIA is capable of making observations that are impossible for even the largest and highest ground-based telescopes,” NASA officials said.
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