NASA Challenge: Human Rated Spacecraft

3D Printing Process Animation

Karlo Sučić
Zagreb, Croatia
Orion Pressure Vessel 3D printing
Using additive technology to make this complex pressure vessel
is important because it can greatly reduce the time of manufacturing,
and its cost. Thus eliminating the need for large number of tools which
may not be applicable for future projects, and/or changes on current
design e.g. milling tools which may wear out after some time.
So by using additive technology the manufacturing process is
made much more flexible.

Robot arm I have constructed is just a sillouete, there was no

need on making it more realistic it just needs rotational axis and capable
of showing you, and others how Orion can be manufactured.

Karlo Sučić, Zagreb (Croatia) 2018

My design shows how the whole pressure vessel could be printed in one
go instead of welding pieces together.
Using Laser Metal Deposition (LMD) process you could make the whole
structure in a more interesting way by redesigning it to be more organic
and thus getting rid of extra weight. In other words printing only the
needed calculated structure without excess material which does nothing
but gives a lot of mass to the already heavy structure.
After both robot arms have printed the structure simultaneously
on a rotating adjustable platform, their print heads are going to be
exchanged with milling tools which will finish the surface which requires
strict tolerances.
Then comes the hole boring process in which already printed hole will be
machined on exact measure.
Scanning could be added to the manufacturing process to verify the
dimensions and tolerances.
But the fastest solution would be that the main bodies are made
with any machining operation, and the robot arm gives it the support
structure (ribs) on the outside and inside.

Karlo Sučić, Zagreb (Croatia) 2018

 Organic structure printing and constructing
If you would reconstruct the structure to be more organic and/or
complex, the manufacturing process would just adapt to the design
without need for different tools and machines.
The result of simplifying the structure might be greater usable
volume and thus you will be able to take extra payload or just stay with
current payload and have lower mass. Lower mass results in effortless
deceleration with smaller loads on the structure during the impact.
In my opinion constructing the organic structure was a complex
manufacturing process which we couldn`t achieve with standard
machining operations, but with technology advancement and increasing
need for better products it might be the future of aerospace industry.
I haven`t redesigned the Orion pressure vessel structure, but
here is one example of shape optimization:

Karlo Sučić, Zagreb (Croatia) 2018

 Avcoat filling automatization
In Orions heat shield production it would be desirable to reduce
the manufacturing time, so instead of workers filling the avcoat by hand a
robot could do it instead of them thus increasing precision, quality and
significantly reducing the production time.
One nozzle for avcoat filling wouldn`t be enough so there would
be multiple nozzles on one robot.
Tip of the nozzle would be elastic so it could adapt to the inside
curvature of the avcoat honeycomb structure, and it would be connected
with a simple hose connector with a machined in nut so it could be
tightened, and a threaded part which will allow a quick and reliable
connection with the mounting part of the filling head.

Karlo Sučić, Zagreb (Croatia) 2018

 Laser Metal Deposition
In order to print the metal structure, we need to choose the
appropriate method. There is a great number of additive technologies, but
the one we are interested in includes laser and desired metal particles.
Usually they are quite slow for big projects because of their
working width, they can´t print a structure wall (20mm) in one pass, they
have to work their way to the desired measure.
But my idea suggests that you take multiple lasers (drawing
below shows 5) all focusing in one point and by changing the distance of
print head from the material, you change the working width to be able to
print much thicker walls, if not even full 20mm wall!

Karlo Sučić, Zagreb (Croatia) 2018

 This is obviously not represented in real size and there would
probably be more lasers involved. The point of this is to give ideas to
NASA engineers who will make it a reality.

Karlo Sučić, Zagreb (Croatia) 2018

 While manufacturing parts using LMD we have to keep the
Oxygen levels low as possible, so that`s the reason for the giant
structure around robot arms, it would be minimized to the smallest
workable volume possible so that the room atmosphere is easier to
adjust. Big structure is here just for example, in reality it would be as
small as possible mainly because of the cost.

Karlo Sučić, Zagreb (Croatia) 2018

 And on the opposite side of Oxygen level tube is Metal particle
dispenser which sends metal particles outside directly onto the laser
beam.

Karlo Sučić, Zagreb (Croatia) 2018