The future is here, and more and more technologies are out to prove that. As a species, we have been adapting since our inception, but it’s leaps like these which really catapult us ahead in our evolution. Scientists from HRL Laboratories in Malibu, California came up with a way to use 3D-printed ceramics in NASA’s future space ships.
- The researchers from HLR created the new ceramic resin that can be printed into any shape and size
- The new material can withstand temperatures up to 3,092 degrees Fahrenheit
- It is also ten times stronger than other similar materials
- The printed material only becomes ceramic after being heated up
- There are countless applications for the new 3-D printing technology
Engineers have wanted to start working with ceramics in their constructions for a very long while, as besides their heat resistance, they offer a large number of other advantages.
For example, they are very light, strong, and malleable, making them ideal for work with space shuttles, airplanes, and basically every piece of technology that has a hard outer shell.
The biggest reason why not so many parts are made out of ceramics, it because it breaks quite easily.
However, following the new invention provided by the study led by Tobias Schaedler from the HRL Laboratories in Malibu, more and more technologies are going to start implementing the discovery.
The team created a pre-ceramic polymer, which can be used to 3-D print objects of pretty much any shape and size.
After the printing process is complete, the resulting shape is heated up to very high temperatures, resulting in a ceramic compound that can withstand up to 3,092 degrees Fahrenheit, or 1,700 degrees Celsius.
This new technology can be applicable in a huge array of fields, from road vehicles, to airplanes, to space ships, and will most likely generate a huge leap in technology in the following years.
Just as a small example, the new polymer can be used to create a jet plane that can travel faster than the sound barrier, without any risks of damage to the plane. Satellites, naval ships, and rockets will all start implementing the technology very soon.
Even DARPA is impressed with the findings, praising the team’s ability to generate certain properties for certain materials that are generally not found together.
This is a huge step for a large number of industries, and it will most likely start to spell progress in the following year, with NASA already starting to use the polymer for components on their next space ships.
Image source: Pixabay
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