Thought current 3D printing was only good for creating cute plastic versions of teapot lids, key rings and other curios? Think again. Choreographed high-power lasers or electron beams can fuse and sculpt metal powders into high-performance machine parts. Now NASA has proved that even rocket motors can be made this way.
Engineers led by Tyler Hickman in the Game Changing Technology Program at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, worked together with rocket-motor maker Aerojet Rocketdyne of Sacramento, California. They wondered if additive layer manufacturing – the engineer's name for 3D printing – could make a precision part called a rocket injector in less time than the year it takes using conventional methods.
To read more, click here.