MAD 3D Printing is How Raven Area Programs Needs to Reinvent Area Manufacturing – 3DPrint.com

When two graduate college students on the College of Oklahoma got down to reimagine composite manufacturing in 2020, they most likely didn’t anticipate how rapidly their innovation would acquire momentum. Quick ahead to 2024, and Raven Area Programs has established itself as an rising pressure in aerospace and protection, incomes grants, contracts, and investments for its unique work in 3D printing thermoset composites.

These composites, comprised of resins bolstered with fibers like carbon or glass, are extremely valued for his or her warmth resistance, power, and light-weight properties. These traits make them important for demanding industries. Nonetheless, conventional strategies of producing thermoset composites are each sluggish and costly, usually requiring hours and even days in an oven to harden.

On the coronary heart of Raven’s success is its patented Microwave Assisted Deposition (MAD) 3D printing expertise, which addresses these challenges head-on. This innovation permits scalable, direct ink-write 3D printing of thermoset and preceramic composites by curing supplies instantly after deposition. Not like conventional strategies, MAD expertise makes use of off-the-shelf aerospace-grade resins and fillers, which might be tailor-made into proprietary blends. These embrace superior supplies like epoxy, phenolic, silicone, silicon carbide, and carbon-carbon composites—all crucial for high-performance functions.

Initially developed as a analysis instrument on a desktop-scale printer, MAD expertise has developed into an industrial-scale course of able to curing composites throughout printing, utterly bypassing the necessity for ovens. This tech not solely saves time but in addition permits for sooner, extra environment friendly manufacturing.

MAD opens up new prospects for aerospace-grade supplies, together with warmth shields, thermal safety techniques, and structural elements. The corporate is now targeted on scaling up, transitioning from proof-of-concept {hardware} to multi-axis, production-ready machines designed for high-demand functions.

Raven’s MAD 3D printing {hardware}. Picture courtesy of Raven Area Programs.

Raven’s MAD 3D printing tech couldn’t come at a greater time. Provide chain points in aerospace and protection have plagued industries for years, with lengthy lead occasions and outdated manufacturing strategies creating vital bottlenecks. By streamlining manufacturing and enabling sooner turnaround occasions, MAD expertise positions Raven as one of many options to those ongoing challenges.

In October 2024, Raven took a serious step ahead by securing a $1.8 million U.S. Air Drive AFWERX Part II STTR (Small Enterprise Know-how Switch) contract. The aim is to create 3D printed reentry aeroshells for hypersonic flight testing, a crucial want for the Division of the Air Drive (DAF).

Aeroshells function the protecting barrier for hypersonic automobiles throughout their reentry into Earth’s environment, the place they encounter excessive warmth and stress from air friction. These elements assist protect the automobile and its payload—whether or not it’s superior sensors, cargo, or weaponry—from temperatures that may exceed hundreds of levels Fahrenheit.

For the Air Drive, hypersonic flight represents a frontier in nationwide protection. Hypersonic automobiles, which journey at speeds exceeding Mach 5, have the potential to ship payloads rapidly and evade present missile protection techniques, making them a crucial benefit in trendy warfare. Nonetheless, advancing this expertise requires rigorous testing below lifelike circumstances. Reentry aeroshells are key to this effort, enabling hypersonic automobiles to outlive atmospheric reentry whereas gathering crucial information for additional growth.

Conventional manufacturing strategies for aeroshells are sluggish and costly, and so they depend on a restricted group of suppliers, like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Basic Dynamics. As an alternative, Raven’s patented MAD can produce light-weight, heat-resistant aeroshells by permitting near-real-time curing of aerospace-grade thermoset composites through the printing course of.

For this challenge, Raven teamed up with Atlanta-based SpaceWorks Enterprises and the Middle for Hypersonics and Entry System Research (CHESS) on the College of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. CHESS will deploy materials science-grade testing for excessive supplies, enabling the event and qualification of 3D printed flight testbeds manufactured by Raven.

“Since 2017, SpaceWorks has been on the forefront of reentry automobile growth, advancing options for each authorities and industrial hypersonic testing wants. With Raven’s cutting-edge 3D-printed aeroshell expertise, we’re poised to drive down prices and develop capabilities, delivering reasonably priced, high-performance hypersonic testing as a service to the trade,” stated Tyler Kunsa, VP of Protection and Area Programs at SpaceWorks.

The MAD 3D printing course of in motion. Picture courtesy of Raven Area Programs.

Constructing on this momentum, Raven secured crucial funding to scale its operations. In November 2024, the Kansas Metropolis-based startup closed an oversubscribed $2 million pre-seed funding spherical, led by Backswing Ventures with participation from a number of different buyers. This new capital will speed up the event of MAD manufacturing traces to resolve crucial provide chain points for thermal safety and light-weight constructions.

Different main achievements embrace securing contracts and grants from NASA and the Nationwide Science Basis (NSF). In reality, their work with NSF on a $275,000 Part I SBIR grant makes Raven eligible for as much as $2 million in extra funding, enabling additional R&D on 3D printing of high-temperature composite supplies utilizing MAD expertise.

A component made utilizing raven’s MAD 3D printing course of. Picture courtesy of Raven Area Programs.

Shifting ahead, Raven is setting its sights even increased with its most formidable challenge but: an indication mission deliberate for 2025. One among its 3D printed house capsules, designed to resist the extraordinary warmth and stress of atmospheric reentry, will probably be examined on a mission to the Worldwide Area Station (ISS).

The capsule will trip within the trunk of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, which burns up upon reentry. Throughout this course of, Raven’s capsule will eject, accumulating and transmitting information to show it’s the first 3D printed object to outlive reentry from house. The corporate is even contemplating live-streaming the occasion or internet hosting a watch social gathering to mark the milestone.