February 1, 2022 Printed Planely

The Liberty Gazette

February 1, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely 

Linda: When you go to a Maker Faire, you’ll find fascinating things to help you get in touch with your inner builder. It’s like a virtual time machine with vendors that take you back a couple of generations and others that hurl you into next year. 

Our friend Lance Borden (www.xtalman.com) has cornered the global market for radio kits right from his living room in Houston. Lance sells kits for kids (or adults) to make crystal radios, one-tube radios, World War II foxhole radios, and more. He’s also an expert in antique radio restoration. You can usually find him at Maker Faires and radio enthusiast gatherings. He’s a ham radio operator, a pilot, and a former NASA space engineer.

On the other end of the spectrum are 3D printers. They’ve become quite sophisticated, and there’s not much that can’t be made with them. Like food, clothing, and shelter. Austin, Texas-based ICON builds 3D printed houses. In fact, they’ve teamed up with Lennar home builders to create a new community of 3D printed homes. Savings on material, labor, and time are significant over traditional building.

I bet you’re wondering, “What about airplanes? Can we 3D print airplanes?” Great question. However, once we get into industrial usage, it’s called additive manufacturing. 

Engineers recently flight-tested a Chinook equipped with an additive manufactured transmission housing. The possibilities are endless. Parts can be manufactured more accurately and with fewer people involved. The main materials used are plastic and metal because they can be heated and melted, which is how 3D printing works. 

Nowadays, however, material can be reinforced with glass or carbon fibers. For things that fly, the total weight reduction realized with lighter parts means savings on fuel and other operational costs. That, in turn, cuts down on carbon dioxide emissions. 3D printed parts tend to be more durable, too. 

Airbus and Boeing are a couple of major aviation manufacturers that have been developing additive manufacturing. Airbus started testing with titanium components back in 2014. If you’ve flown on a Finnair A320, you’ve probably touched some 3D printed parts when you stowed baggage in the overhead compartments. The part that fills in the space between compartments is 3D printed. 

You can expect to see significant growth in the use of 3D printing in the aviation and aerospace industries, so if you’re an investor, look for companies like ULTEM, which makes a resin that is one of the only 3D printing plastics authorized for use on certified aircraft components. ULTEM resin passes important tests of flammability, smoke, and toxicity with excellent ratings, and has high mechanical and thermal resistance. So as a substance for creating aircraft components, it’s a great candidate for replacement parts in electrical and lighting systems. That means headlamps, ignition and engine elements, electric switches, frames, and bulb sockets can be replaced through additive manufacturing when the old parts wear out. 

How ironic and timeless would it be if Lance created parts for his historic radio kits through 3D printing? 

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