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Handddle, a France-based 2020 startup specializing in 3D printing manufacturing strains, has geared up the French Air and House Drive with a brand new 3D printing microfactory.
Situated within the I3D Workshop at Air Drive base 204, the Good Farm contains a number of desktop FFF 3D printers from OEMs similar to Markforged and Ultimaker. Engineers on the base will use the brand new print farm to carry small half fabrication in-house, enabling fast turnaround for all the pieces from purposeful prototyping to spare half manufacturing and low-volume batch manufacturing.
The set up is Handddle’s first collaboration with the protection sector, marking the agency’s entry into a brand new strategic market.
Handddle writes, “The primary section has been launched. The target of the French Air and House Drive is to make sure the applicability of the answer for deployment on Air Drive bases throughout France. The French Air and House Drive can also be planning to make use of the Good Farm for exterior operations near the customers and their wants.”
Additive manufacturing on the I3D Workshop
Located in Mérignac, France, the Air and House Drive’s I3D Workshop has been up and working for over a yr. The power is devoted to 3D printing and permits the armed drive to supply advanced and confidential elements away from prying eyes.
The I3D Workshop additionally contributes to produce chain resilience out within the subject, the place troops and different personnel might require elements with fast lead occasions. In the end, the lab serves as a one-stop-shop for protection elements that have to be fabricated below strict manufacturing situations, addressing certification necessities.
Sadly, engineers on the lab typically run into environmental points that make it unattainable to qualify the 3D printing course of, which poses issues for high-performance elements.
The Air Drive’s Innovation Administration Workplace explains, “We have now encountered an issue of rising humidity within the I3D Workshop because the starting of autumn and this instantly stopped the manufacturing of TPU elements, that are notably delicate to humidity. Additionally, temperature disparities trigger warping phenomena.”
In a bid to handle these points, Handddle provided to deploy its personal 3D printing manufacturing line on the I3D Workshop.
A Good Farm makeover
The brand new Good Farm is designed to assist the Air and House Drive preserve safety and management over its manufacturing course of, changing the outdated additive manufacturing lab. It incorporates two modules: a manufacturing surroundings for the 3D printers and a storage surroundings for the filaments.
In addition to offering optimum printing situations for the machines, the Good Farm additionally secures the workspace for operators with an autonomous filtering system that catches dangerous emissions similar to VOCs.
Handddle’s microfactory comes full with a software program software that allows full management over the printer fleet in real-time, whereas additionally providing useful resource administration capabilities for traceability. The Good Farm can also be ISO 9001 licensed.
If profitable on the I3D Workshop, the Air and House Drive may even deploy the 3D printing manufacturing line at extra of its bases throughout France.
Additive manufacturing within the armed forces isn’t any new enterprise, and the listing of functions goes past simply prototyping and spare half manufacturing. Only in the near past, the College of Maine (UMaine) 3D printed two new large-scale boats for the US Marine Corps at its Superior Constructions and Composites Heart in Orono, one in every of which is reportedly the biggest vessel ever to be additively manufactured. The prototype boats are designed to be logistical help vessels and might be examined for subject use within the coming months.
Elsewhere, the Protection Superior Analysis Tasks Company (DARPA) just lately issued a Small Enterprise Innovation Analysis (SBIR) alternative inviting proposals for a brand new edible 3D printing materials. The idea name goals to draw intelligent concepts for turning biomass into secure and edible meals merchandise designed to be 3D printed on the entrance strains and different catastrophe zones.
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Featured picture reveals the Good Farm on the I3D Workshop. Photograph through Handddle.
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