At 60.000 Dollar, this prototype Navy Seal delivery submarine, used to drop off troops in hostile waters, is a bargain for the U.S. Navy. Traditional manufacturing methods would cost at least an order of magnitude higher, but 3D printing with carbon fiber filaments decimates the labor cost, required tooling, molds, and needed construction time.
In the video below, from the National Oak Ridge Laboratory, additive manufacturing enthusiasts at home must humbly take note of the sort of toys a ‘slightly’ bigger industrial 3D printer is able to make. It seems that in the future we are destined to see fleets of large carbon printed vessels. And bigger vehicles still. Did you say… airplanes, rockets, spaceships?
(Courtesy: National Oak Ridge Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy)
Find out about more of their feats of 3D prototyping here. One of the video’s shows a 3D printed car frame. While cars have been done before, the way in which the laboratory uses this car frame as a component prototyping test bed is making school all over the world.
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