EBF3
Electron Beam Free-Form Fabrication
Is a new manufacturing technology recently invented by NASA scientists. This technology has already been tested in zero gravity.
EBF3 is not a prototyping process. EBF3 creates metal products that astronauts in space and people here on earth might use right out of the machine.
Hydroforming
The industrial process of forming materials by water pressure is called hydroforming. This process has played a role in manufacturing for at least a half a century.
Intelligent Robots
Today's fully automated manufacturing facilities often transport and process materials into products without any human intervention. Since the machines can't see the materials that they are processing, manufacturers often turn off the lights in the manufacturing area to save money.
The Airbus 380
The plane generates only half the noise of a 747. It is very fuel efficient burning twelve percent less fuel per passenger than a 747. By placing more people on a single airplane Airbus feels it can actually reduce aircraft overload at airports.
METEC's
Financially Sustainable
Recycling
Wouldn't it be amazing if someone came up with an un-manufacturing process that could turn old products into manufactured, and processed materials?
Rapid Prototyping
& Manufacturing
With the first pass the laser solidifies the outer shape directly out of the photo-sensitive material on the surface of the vat. The laser then moves in to solidify all the solid areas in that layer.
May 2012
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
TechDirections Magazine
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The Friction-Stir Welding process welds metals without melting them. It works on metals including aluminum, a metal that cannot easily be joined using other metal fusion processes.
NASA engineers have recently reengineered this technology so that it can now be used on materials that vary in thickness and even weld objects with very complex shapes.
Friction-Stir Welding
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Baxter the Unconventional Robot
February 2013
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
Baxter the unconventional robot writes its own programming code. Baxter is a new type of robot, with toy-like features, that has been designed to work next to people.
Baxter was created by Rodney Brooks the former director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Before he established Rethink Robotics and created Baxter, he founded iRobot. A company that builds consumer robotic cleaning machines, military warrior bots, and rescue robots. Rodney Brooks is called the go-to guy for artificial intelligence, computer vision, and robotics.
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May 2013
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
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You learned in science that vulcanization is a process that changes the structure of rubber, making it indestructible. The Fraunhofer Institute of Germany and two American companies have demonstrated that they can turn old vulcanized rubber tires into a powder that can once again be bonded together by the heat and pressure of an extrusion machine or the injection molding process. The full story tells how they are now starting to turn old rubber particles into new high quality products.
Reversing the Vulcanization Process
Reversing the Rubber Vulcanization Process
Manufacturing
