The Top 10 Additive Manufacturing Stories of 2024
Defense, space exploration, thermal management — these are some of the topics that captured the Additive Manufacturing audience’s interest in 2024. But there’s also an overarching theme: Don't wait for additive manufacturing to be perfect. Instead, leverage the applications perfect for AM.
Revisit — or enjoy for the first time — the top ten articles published by Additive Manufacturing Media in 2024.
1. This Year I Have Seen A Lot of AM for the Military: What Is Going On?
Audience members had similar questions, according to AM editor-in-chief Peter Zelinski. In this column for the November issue of Additive Manufacturing Magazine, Zelinski looks at the Department of Defense’s interest in making hardware via 3D printing over conventional methods. He addresses three manufacturing concerns that are particular to the military. Read it here
2. Video: 5” Diameter Navy Artillery Rounds Made Through Robot DED Instead of Forging
Big Metal Additive has developed and proven out a process using directed energy deposition (DED) via a robot to make projectile housings for artillery rounds through additive manufacturing instead of forging. See more about this work in a video filmed during a visit to Big Metal Additive in Denver, Colorado. Watch it here
Peter Zelinski at Big Metal Additive in Denver, Colorado
3. Beehive Industries Is Going Big On Small Scale Engines Made Through Additive Manufacturing
Backed by decades of experience in both aviation and additive, Beehive Industries is now laser-focused on a single goal: developing, proving and scaling production of engines providing 5,000 lbs of thrust or less. AM executive editor Stephanie Hendrixson shares what she gleaned on the company’s approach to “affordable mass” during her visit in Englewood, Colorado. Read it here
Beehive Industries’ director of operations Keren Callen (far right) and VP of operations David Kimball show Hendrixson around the engine test cell the company constructed itself.
4. 3D Printed Titanium Replaces Aluminum for Unmanned Aircraft Wing Splice: The Cool Parts Show #72
Aircraft makers 3D printing plane components often begin with less critical parts first, then proceed to more vital parts as confidence builds. As this episode of The Cool Parts Show explains, General Atomics did the opposite. Using DED via the Rapid Plasma Deposition process from Norsk Titanium, General Atomics has 3D printed a wing splice for an unmanned aerial system. That is, DED via RPD is used to make the part that affixes the wings to a remotely piloted plane. Watch it here
5. With Electrochemical Additive Manufacturing (ECAM), Cooling Technology Is Advancing by Degrees
Electrochemical Additive Manufacturing (ECAM) is a 3D printing process that activates electrical currents pixel by pixel to cause copper ions in solution to form metal atoms at specific locations. What can this be used for? San Diego-based Fabric8Labs is using ECAM to manufacture cold plates for the semiconductor industry in pure copper. Read it here
Fabric8Labs printed this 80% gyroid infill cold plate using ECAM. Source: Fabric8Labs
6. At General Atomics, Do Unmanned Aerial Systems Reveal the Future of Aircraft Manufacturing?
The 3D printed wing splice mentioned above is made by General Atomics. This maker of the Predator and SkyGuardian remote aircraft can implement additive manufacturing more rapidly and widely than the makers of other types of planes. The role of 3D printing in the company’s current and future unmanned aerial system components hints at how far AM can go to save cost and time in aircraft production and design. Read it here
Parts made via additive manufacturing address various systems of the plane, but heat transfer is one running theme. For example: these air inlets. Photo: General Atomics.
7. 3D Printed NASA Thrust Chamber Assembly Combines Two Metal Processes: The Cool Parts Show #71
The Cool Parts Show visited NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, to learn about a single-piece, multi-metal thrust chamber assembly made through laser powder bed fusion of copper alloy joined to nickel superalloy via directed energy deposition. Propulsion systems made this way could be produced in days instead of months, with significantly less effort and material waste. Watch it here
8. Implicit Modeling for Additive Manufacturing
Get to know implicit modeling in this AM 101-style piece by Stephanie Hendrixson. Some software tools now use this modeling strategy as opposed to explicit methods of representing geometry. Here’s how it works, and why it matters for additive manufacturing. Read it here
Parts like this (shown in Altair Inspire 2023) that include lattices and many surfaces can be more easily designed and modified through implicit modeling tools. Source: Altair
9. How Machining Makes AM Successful for Innovative 3D Manufacturing
Innovative 3D Manufacturing of Franklin, Indiana, has a secret to remaining consistently profitable in metal part production and prototyping via additive manufacturing. That secret is: Do not have build failures. Peter Zelinski shares more from his visit. Read it here (and listen to the visit recap on AM Radio)
Turning is not typically thought of as a postprocessing machining operation for additive parts, but these Hwacheon lathes do a surprising amount of AM-related work at Innovative 3D Manufacturing.
10. 3MF File Format for Additive Manufacturing More Than Geometry
Software is one of the factors that make additive manufacturing infinitely flexible; without reliance on hard tooling such as molds, fixtures or cutting tools, AM makes it possible to reproduce a given part directly from a digital file. The 3MF file format offers a less data-intensive way of recording part geometry, as well as details about build preparation, material, process and more. Read it here
This graph represents the relationship between part mass and STL file size. The example parts shown below illustrate how, as the part’s physical mass is reduced through organic forms and lattices, its STL file size grows exponentially. Representing the same forms through 3MF, by comparison, results in significantly smaller files. Source: 3MF Consortium.
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