Applied Research In Acoustics LLC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: N221-062

Description

The Navy suffers from long lead times to obtain replacements for broken and worn parts. Additive manufacturing (AM) offers the potential to reduce supply-chain issues through shipboard manufacturing of replacement parts on an as-needed basis. Because AM machines are not inherently designed to MIL standards, modular control systems are needed to mitigate environmental effects on the machines as well as the effects that the machines have on their environment. AM machine operators need a modular, universal control system that mitigates the harmful effects of vibration and ship motion, provides temperature and humidity control, and filters out harmful ultrafine particles (UFPs) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emissions. ARiA will develop the standalone Trimodal Universal Portable Control (TUPAC) system that will provide: broadband active and passive vibration mitigation, a novel evacuation system that removes UFPs and VOCs at the source, and temperature and humidity control for the filament before and during the printing process. The TUPAC system design will ensure minimal noise and electromagnetic interference (EMI) impact on the operators and surrounding equipment, respectively.  Each subsystem will be adaptable to fused deposition modeling (FDM) style printers of all makes and models, and are dual-use technologies that can be used independently.