Alex

Power company Westinghouse has announced that they have installed two 3D printed nuclear fuel debris filters in nuclear power plants in both Finland and Sweden. The 3D-printed nuclear fuel debris filter, dubbed the “StrongHold AM” has been installed in two Nordic Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) units. The first is installed at the Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant in Finland, specifically in the Olkiluoto 2 unit. The second StrongHold AM fuel debris filter has been installed in Finland, and at Oskarshamn Nuclear Power Plant in Sweden (specifically Oskarshamn unit 3). The fuel debris filters will improve the reliability of both nuclear plants. You can see the debris filter in the image below. Debris filter. (Image credit: Westinghouse) While the name may suggest that this is a filter that filters fuel (like a car fuel filter), it is in fact for filtering the coolant around the fuel. Wear and tear in the reactor…    read more 

In traditional manufacturing, it is said that when choosing a process, it’s best to opt for the one that removes the largest amount of material in the quickest amount of time. This applies to additive manufacturing as much as it does subtractive manufacturing. Sure, the part may need finessing before it’s a fully net shaped part, but in most cases, getting the bulk of the basic geometry formed as fast as physically possible without ruining the piece is the way to go. This is why injection molding and casting are preferred for rapid creation of net shape parts. All the deposition happens more or less in one go. In order for AM to even begin to compete with these methods, it needs to increase the deposition rate of the material. The Saint Exupéry Institute for Research in Technology (IRT), France, has raised the bar in that regard and has set…    read more 

It’s been a good few weeks for 3D printed rocket stories. But those have been designed for space launches. This time, we will be looking at rockets designed for ground use. Specifically, a YouTube channel (Ordnance Lab) has released a video this week demonstrating their home made rocket launcher. In fact, not just one but TWO rocket launchers with printed rockets to boot. They claim it is the world’s first printed rocket. We have seen printed rocket caps before, but it seems this may be the first fully printed rocket body. 75mm rocket launcher. (Image credit: Ordnance Lab) Rocket A rocket in its simplest form is basically a tube with a bunch of fire coming out the back, utilizing Newton’s 3rd law of motion to hurtle itself towards a target, be it outer space, or something on Earth that needs destroying. A rocket launcher is an even simpler tube, used…    read more 

Colorado-based rocket engine company Ursa Major has used 3D printing to build a reusable, liquid oxygen/methane rocket engine capable of delivering 200,000 lbs of thrust. The engine, dubbed “Arroway” was partly printed in copper and other materials and will fill the gap left by the now unavailable RD-180 and RD-181 Russian engines which until recently were used on the American Atlas V rocket. Here is a fancy render of the Arroway, with an astronaut for scale. A nice render. (Image credit: Ursa Major) In a recent press release, the company, which states that they are the only privately funded company that focuses solely on rocket propulsion, announced that they were now taking orders for their Arroway engine. They have built two smaller engines on the path to Arroway. Ursa Major‘s previous engines include “Hadley,” capable of producing 5,000-pounds of thrust, and the 50,000-pound thrust “Ripley” engine. Hadley was the first…    read more