Airbus-built steel 3D printer blasts off to ISS for checks

The primary ever 3D printer designed for use in house will shortly arrive on the Worldwide Area Station (ISS) the place it is going to be examined on board the Columbus module. 

The 3D steel printer was created and designed by Airbus for the European Area Company (ESA), with hopes that the washing-machine-sized contraption will help future missions to Mars and the Moon. 

There are presently a number of plastic 3D printers on board the ISS that are incessantly utilized by astronauts. Nevertheless, the instruments to supply steel objects on this approach haven’t been accessible till now. 

Astronauts primarily based on the ISS can typically wait months for steel replacements to be delivered from Earth, so there are hopes that the steel 3D printer could also be a recreation changer. 

Gwenaëlle Aridon, Airbus Area Meeting lead engineer, stated: “The steel 3D printer will carry new on-orbit manufacturing capabilities, together with the likelihood to supply load-bearing structural elements which are extra resilient than a plastic equal. Astronauts will have the ability to straight manufacture instruments corresponding to wrenches or mounting interfaces that might join a number of elements collectively. The flexibleness and fast availability of 3D printing will drastically enhance astronauts’ autonomy.” 

Printing steel in house poses a raft of distinctive issues and Airbus will likely be gathering knowledge about how the brand new machine performs.  

The typical 3D printer usually requires a 10m² laboratory at least, so Airbus engineers have needed to considerably scale back the dimensions. 

One other consideration concerned making certain that the house station is protected against the laser and the warmth generated by the steel 3D printer.  

Though the printer sits in a safe-like field, the melting level of steel alloys appropriate with this course of will be far over 1,200°C levels, in comparison with round 200°C levels for plastic. 

“Gravity administration can be key, which is why we selected wire-based printing expertise. The wire is impartial of gravity in contrast to the powder-based system, which at all times has to fall to the bottom,” Sébastien Girault, steel 3D printer System Engineer at Airbus, stated. 

Whether or not from plastic or steel, fumes are emitted that have to be handed by filters and captured contained in the machine in order that they don’t contaminate the air inside the ISS. 

A precise duplicate of the 3D printer on Earth will mirror a few of the work accomplished by the space-based machine.  

4 pattern elements made by the 3D printer on the ISS will likely be despatched again to Airbus for comparability towards these produced by the Earth-based machine. 

The steel 3D printer was developed by a consortium comprising Airbus Protection and Area, AddUp, Cranfield College and Highftech Engineering, below a program run and funded by the European Area Company (ESA). 

The steel 3D printer took off for the ISS aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on January 20, 2024.