Not too long ago, engineers from Ultimaker, Covestro, and the Royal Dutch Navy got here collectively to reply the query, “How Robust are 3D Printed Components?” Seems, a plastic 3D-printed half can raise a 12-tonne tank.

Often, engineers measure a fabric’s power through the use of a tensile testing machine. Usually, a small pattern print is created and examined beneath a big drive till it snaps. The drive projected on the half divided by the floor of the central intersection on the time of breaking will reveal its power.

Whereas this is smart to engineers, it typically doesn’t come throughout very properly to others who could must see one thing to grasp the way it works, in order that they determined to indicate an instance of simply how robust a 3D-printed plastic half might be by lifting one thing very heavy: a tank.

Now that may be a enjoyable experiment!

How They Created the First Prototype Design

As a way to raise a heavy automobile like a 12-tonne tank utilizing a 3D-printed half, first you might want to analyze the {hardware} out there.

The Royal Dutch Navy has a lifting tank that makes use of two openable metal rings to connect with their crane, and to the cables hooked up to the automobile they needed to raise. An elongated O-shaped hyperlink can be the right resolution to have the ability to join these two metallic rings and raise the heavy automobile.

After importing the design of the metal rings into CAD software program, Ultimaker Software Engineer, Lars de Jongh was then in a position to give you the primary preliminary design for the hyperlink they would want. Lars needed to work with the design necessities.

Initially, the hyperlink wanted to have a flat aspect for a secure 3D print and it wanted to be printed with the layer strains in the identical course because the forces projected on the half. On prime of that, the 3D-printed half and metallic rings’ interacting floor wanted to be as giant as attainable to unfold forces evenly.

The Ultimaker Market has a whole lot of supplies to select from for every kind of various wants. Every considered one of them has a novel mixture of various properties, which makes it very probably your half will match the set necessities you are attempting to work with.

The fabric wanted for this take a look at wanted to be extraordinarily robust but it surely additionally wanted to have the ability to take up short-peak forces. They determined to make use of the Addigy® F1030 CF10 from Covestro which is a nylon-based polymer loaded with carbon fiber and could be printed on the Ultimaker S5 with the CC print core.

Utilizing Simulations to Optimize the Design

It takes a lot much less time to 3D print a strong, 2-kilogram hyperlink than it does to supply it with conventional strategies. Nevertheless, the variety of iterations essential to validate the appropriate geometry meant that point was nonetheless an element. That’s why they determined the design needs to be optimized earlier than printing it through the use of laptop simulations

Covestro labored on this undertaking to digitally apply the forces on the design utilizing software program that is aware of the precise bodily properties of the carbon fiber nylon materials. By operating simulations, they have been in a position to determine the place the design wanted to be adjusted and the place materials might be eliminated. This created an optimized design that would raise extra weight, whereas needing much less materials, leading to a quicker manufacturing time with much less price.

Verifying the Simulation

Earlier than lifting a heavy automobile like a 12-tonne tank, they wanted to check the printed half’s calculated power bodily to verify it could work. They created two completely different designs with two completely different sizes. The primary design was a 1-kilogram hyperlink which they estimated might stand up to 12 tonnes. The second weighing roughly 2 kilograms was estimated to have the ability to stand up to 38 tonnes.

The Royal Dutch Navy has an on-site industrial tensile tester that is ready to undertaking as much as a formidable 343 kilonewtons of drive on an object. Each the preliminary and optimized designs have been examined for the big and small variations on this experiment.

The optimized design was in a position to stand up to the next drive whereas weighing a 3rd much less. The distinction between the examined outcomes and the simulated numbers was additionally extraordinarily shut, being only one% off on common. This made this workflow correct and worthwhile in time-to-market and elevated efficiency.

Lifting Two Totally different Automobiles with 3D Printed Plastic Components

After a number of months of designing, printing, testing, and planning – it was time to lastly take a look at these 3D-printed components in the true world by lifting navy automobiles. The components have been taken to the Dutch Military base within the south of the Netherlands the place the thirteenth Gentle Rhino Brigade assisted within the testing with their armored restoration automobile. Their Leopard 2 “Buffalo” has a crane mounted on the entrance and is designed to get well heavy automobiles akin to vans and battle tanks.

First, the 1-kilo hyperlink was used to raise a navy model of a Mercedes jeep. This automobile weighs over 2 tonnes. That they had no downside lifting it with the hyperlink and it was simply lifted.

Subsequent, the 2-kilo strong carbon fiber bolstered nylon hyperlink was positioned between the M113 armored automobile and the Buffalo crane. The metallic rings have been tightened in place and 4 cables have been hooked up from the decrease hook to the automobile. The crane slowly began to maneuver up, placing the cables and 3D printed half beneath excessive pressure. The 12-tonne tank slowly started to rise and hovered above the bottom, hanging from a 3D-printed hyperlink! The Buffalo drove round, backward, ahead, and even turning round, and the 3D-printed hyperlink held up completely.

What They Realized From This Take a look at

The undertaking was a fantastic success in not simply producing a robust 3D printed half that would raise navy automobiles but it surely was necessary to see that CAD simulations have come a good distance, not simply simulating a form, however giving correct predictions taking materials, and even fiber course under consideration. With the ability to depend on such instruments is a serious profit for engineers in addition to the navy usually.

Whereas all components have been printed in correctly maintained rooms and the supplies weren’t uncovered to moisture, there was nonetheless a noticeable distinction between variations printed in a dry warehouse, and components printed with intentionally dried spools of filament in a heated, dry print room. Nylon absorbs moisture and this can lead to weaker prints. That’s why it’s essential to know supplies’ properties and deal with them accordingly.

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