MAI will present its additive technology achievements at the "Army-2020"

The Moscow Aviation Institute will present a number of promising projects at the Army 2020 international military technical forum. Among them there is experimental development of a software and hardware stand for additive manufacturing testing with the simultaneous use of several types of materials, and it was created at the MAI Department 904 "Engineering graphics".

The University team worked under the leadership of Andrew Ripetsky, Professor 904, Candidate of Science, it listed the NIO-9 engineer and graduate student Veniamin Brykin, and the ideologist of the hardware part of the project, the principal investigator, technician of the Department Anton Korolev and students of the "General Engineering" Institute.

Their invention allows to speed up the process of additive manufacturing and reduce the cost of three-dimensional printing from non-metallic materials.

"Additive technologies are currently used at all major Russian enterprises and worldwide. So far, they are used mainly for obtaining testing design solutions prototypes and to a lesser extent for the production of finished items, — said Andrey Ripetsky. — The main idea of our project is to "pack" the existing technological solutions in order to achieve higher level results. We have created a prototype device that prints the product of several materials, including ceramics, and the accuracy and speed of production are adapted depending on the size and shape of the product: major elements are printed on a layer of greater thickness and correspondingly large diameter of the extruded material, and product parts that require detailed elaboration are printed on a layer of smaller thickness."

Currently the prototype works on non-metallic materials. In future, the concept of adaptive three-dimensional printing can be applied to metallic materials as well. Due to the scalability capabilities that are the basis of the concept, the number of materials used is practically unlimited, while the number of equipment control channels remains fixed. To expand the range of materials, one only needs to add interchangeable print heads and, if necessary, increase the effective printing area.

The developers already cooperate with several organizations interested in the new project: the engine-building company UEC-Saturn, the production and engineering company Titan-Avangard (the AddSol brand), the resident of SKOLKOVO innovation center in the nuclear technologies cluster 3D-Meduza, the manufacturer of 3D printers Stereotech, etc.

The developers see the prospects of their project not only as sales of the plants, but also in the implementation of individual hardware and software elements. At the same time, according to forecasts of leading consulting companies, the demand for additive technology solutions will only grow: by 2030, up to two-thirds of all products in the world will be produced with printed components. And in 2030-2050, a number of manufacturing industries will completely switch to 3D printing of finished products.