How the composite orbital technology could hold the promise of 3D printing for robotic automation

"Several robots in the same work cell, printing the same part, in parallel: it is important for the factory's footprint to remain small, while being able to produce a large number of parts.The trick is to ensure that robots do not collide with each other.

Several robots printing the same room, in parallel: it is a more advanced case of use.Not only should robots be coordinated to avoid collisions, but the programming of several robots printing together makes it possible to produce high quality parts.It requires a lot of mathematics!

Multi-material 3D printing: instead of printing monolithic parts, it is possible to print very complex multi-material parts, with several robots holding different effectors for printing, pre/post-processing or automation.It's a bit like several robots working together to make cars, except that printing is one of the possible steps.Our orbital robotic printing cell has been designed to accommodate up to six robots ".

Even if the company works mainly in silent mode, we know that it has developed robotic 3D printers of industrial quality, easily adaptable.Its first commercial robotic 3D printer, for example, incorporates an orb operating system which facilitates the printing of thermoplastic composite parts.The machine has a robot mounted on chassis which has a high volume thermoplastic print head, the position of which is easily adaptable.

To develop this solution, the team has improved the size, cycle time and accessibility of its manufacturing platform. « Grâce à notre plateforme modulaire, nous pouvons construire des imprimantes robotisées d’une taille allant de 1 m à >100 m et [chacune de ces catégories de taille offre des temps de cycle rapides pour atteindre une production en volume.In addition,] to reduce manufacturing to the United States and in Allied countries, mobile manufacturing is essential, because it allows new manufacturing paradigms just in time, near the place of use of parts.[This is why we aim to quickly deploy mobile printing cells and considerably simplify logistics throughout the manufacturing sector, "notes Badesha.

Parlant de l’adoption de la robotique pour la FA aujourd’hui, Badesha voit pour les fabricants la « capacité d’imprimer hors du plan avec >12 degrés de liberté« .For the CEO, the combination of robotics and FA also facilitates the implementation of flexible devices which allow prints in several stages and the possibility of printing complex parts.Without forgetting the possibility of using "robots for operations other than printing, such as milling, finishing and, above all, automation of insertion and withdrawal of parts.»»

Regarding materials, as you may know, manufacturers often use composite manufacturing to replace metal parts.With the approach of the composite orbital platform, manufacturers could go beyond this widely accepted idea and print with a large library of materials."This includes thermodrosable and thermoplastic resins, the two types of resin with cut or continuous fibers, and metal.The platform is also easily expandable to ceramic matrix composites and pre-certified materials can be used for accelerated adoption, "explains our guest.

In addition, as the company's ultimate objective is to allow industries to manage robotic manufacturing fleets, Orbital Composites must necessarily take into account digital manufacturing.This is why it has developed software based on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning which allows robots to print objects independently in the same zone of construction.Advanced programming software can also allow multiple robots to print the same object simultaneously. Comme l’équipe investit actuellement des efforts supplémentaires pour faire progresser les composites avancés, la robotique et la fabrication numérique, elle ouvrira de nouvelles possibilités d’applications de l’IA/et l’apprentissage machine pour l’impression de polymères et de composites à grande échelle et élargira le développement de « produits critiques avec des répliques virtuelles complètes»» en utilisant le jumeau numérique.

Current applications and projects

The automated additive manufacturing of composites has a bright future ahead of it and, as we saw at first, one of the main vertical industries that will benefit is the aeronautical industry;This includes applications related to drones and satellites.

Orbital Composites being a relatively new actor in this area, we have requested a concrete application that the team has already carried out in the field of FA Robotics.Orbital composites spokesperson mentioned a product they have developed in collaboration with Lore, a team of engineers who developed a hard hull shoe printed in 3D 3D.

This "revolutionary cycling shoe is printed in custom 3D from the scan of the foot of each cyclist.It is only possible with 3D fiber printing continues at 12 axes, and that with the collaboration of two robots.As shown in the example of the shoe, complex geometries, such as organic forms and curves, are notoriously difficult to make, [and can now be created using] FA Robotics with FIBER continuous.If the out -of -plan printing allows mass personalization of finished complex products, the agility of robots allows you to move on to mass production, "enthuses the expert.

At the moment, in order to demonstrate the capacities of its 3D printing robots, Orbital Composites is collaborating with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Oak Ridge, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States) and the University of Maine (Umaine, Orono, Maine,United States) to develop on-site and high speed manufacturing of wind turbines with the additive manufacturing in continuous-scale fiber.The project is carried out within the framework of a subsidy of $ 4 million granted by the Office of Energy efficiency and Renewable Energies (Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy) of the Ministry of Energy (DOE).

"Another project with Oak Ridge National Laboratory demonstrates rapid prototyping and production capacities at orbital scale applied to high performance VTOL planes.Thanks to a STTRE subsidy of the AGILITY PRIME PRIME of the US Air Force, we are developing a high performance cargo drone which can meet the difficult mission requirements and which can be fully printed in 3D.Our FA platform will be combined with compression molding, in order to advance the hybrid process Additive-Fabrication Composite (FA-FC) to demonstrate the manufacturing in large volume of propellers of propellers.The FA-FC hybrid process combines the advantages of additive manufacturing with compression molding, allowing large volume production of high-performance composite parts made from multi-material and continuous fiber polymers.

We have also recently delivered our orbital S system to the University of Minnesota, in Duluth.We support their research efforts in FA by providing them with hardware, software and technical assistance.Finally, we were selected to participate in the ‘Catalyst Accelerator’s on-Orbitage, Assembly, and Manufacturing Cohort program program.’ Ce programme, soutenu par la Direction des véhicules spatiaux du Laboratoire de recherche de l’armée de l’air (AFRL/RV et Space Force), nous a permis de développer « la fabrication en orbite de structures spatiales de grande taille, précises et résistantes, telles que les réseaux solaires, les antennes RF et les optiques segmentées»».We have advanced these technologies by collaborating and engaging with industry experts, government and commercial emissaries and customers.Our experience ended with a live demonstration of our achievements in the ‘Catalyst Campus for Technology and Innovation’.We have created many partnerships and sustainable business relations within and outside our cohort, and we plan to continue working with them to create the next generation of space exploration technologies, "said Badesha.

"We have a number of additional projects that will become public over time or are strictly confidential for our customers," he adds.

The next step in the oc pipeline

The combination of robotics and FA seems to have many advantages, whether in terms of labor or automated mass manufacturing.However, several steps must still be improved to promote the adoption of this marriage of powerful processes.One of the most urgent steps to improve is that of software.

There is "a lack of unified CAD work flow in printing.There are a number of steps to be taken and our goal is to build unified software combining all the intermediate steps in one.We are already on the right track to achieve this with the development of Orbital OS, our operating system which can control an unlimited number of robots. Cela nous permet de gérer de grandes usines robotisées de manière transparente et d’entrer dans l’ère de la fabrication définie par logiciel (Software-Defined-Manufacturing ou SDM)»», souligne Badesha.

However, the next most immediate steps will consist of allowing national laboratories, universities and research institutes to explore and adopt robotic 3D printing with continuous fibers by taking advantage of their orbital S.The FA Robotics expert also seeks to provide manufacturing services as a service (manufacturing as a service - maas) to customers interested in polymer, composite, metal or hybrid products personalized in mass and large volume, and obviouslyto develop revolutionary products by associating with key customers in different vertical sectors.

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