Development of blended solid-lattice designs for 3D printing, to be used in space-station or space missions using zero-gravity 3D printer

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Name: Venkatesh KrishnanUniversity: Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, India https://www.iisc.ac.in/Program: Masters in Product Design and Engineering (Final year) http://cpdm.iisc.ac.in/cpdm/curriculum.phpAdvisor: Prof. B. Gurumoorthy, http://cpdm.iisc.ac.in/cpdm/facultyprofile.php?name=33D printing method: FDM3D printing material: PPSF (Production-grade thermoplastic for fortus 3d printers)Design Brief Space stations (such as ISS – International Space Station) and long-term manned space missions (such as future mission to Moon, Mars and Venus) might tend to face issues like accidental damage of equipment and structures, need for replacement of parts and scientific instruments, maintenance of mechanical failures etc. Such failures require resupply missions to send the replacement parts which is very expensive and risky In all these cases, an onboard 3D printer would have helped build the repair structures without the need for a resupply mission. Having an on-board 3D printer (Fused deposition modelling, Stereolithography, Direct metal laser sintering etc) in space stations will help in on-site and on-demand printing of parts in case of maintenance or malfunction and reduces recharge missions. On September 2014, SpaceX delivered the zero-gravity 3D printer to the ISS. On December 19, 2014, NASA emailed CAD drawings for a socket wrench to astronauts aboard the ISS, who then printed the tool using its 3D printer. But it is not practical to carry a large amount of 3D printing material to space, especially long-term missions which have constraints on weight and space. Hence the challenge here is to minimize the material usage during 3D printing. This can be addressed by redesigning the part using structural optimization technique. The blended solid-lattice designs provide structural integrity (strength, stiffness and durability) by leveraging the advantage of additive manufacturing and at the same time reduce the material consumption. The Hex key design is shown here as an example of how parts can be redesigned for 3D printing