ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —3D printing has changed the world. It’s allowed the aerospace, medical, automotive, manufacturing and many other industries to customize parts and prototypes in ways they never could before. It has drastically increased flexibility and cost effectiveness while reducing waste and production time. But many 3D-printed materials aren’t the strongest. A team of chemists […]
Tag Archives: 3D printing
Engineer taps into Sandia’s deep knowledge base to design high-reliability component
February 26, 2024 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Robert Petterborg saw an opportunity to improve a critical part used to test a weapons system. Using his spare time at work and with the help of his Sandia National Laboratories colleagues, he designed a new cable connector that eliminates misalignments that could interfere with testing and potentially damage hardware. “I wasn’t […]
New superalloy could cut carbon emissions from power plants
February 16, 2023 – 10:42 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — As the world looks for ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions, researchers from Sandia National Laboratories have shown that a new 3D-printed superalloy could help power plants generate more electricity while producing less carbon. Sandia scientists, collaborating with researchers at Ames National Laboratory, Iowa State University and Bruker Corp., used a 3D […]
Teens pay it forward, use 3D printers built at Sandia to make face shields
May 15, 2020 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Teens who built 3D printers during a weeklong robotics camp at Sandia National Laboratories last year have used them to make more than 3,000 face shields that have been donated to medical professionals and first responders in New Mexico. The camp was hosted by Sandia in collaboration with R4 Creating, a nonprofit […]
Sandia’s robotic work cell conducts high-throughput testing ‘in an instant’
June 11, 2018 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Today with 3D printing you can make almost anything in a matter of hours. However, making sure that part works reliably takes weeks or even months. Until now. Sandia National Laboratories has designed and built a six-sided work cell, similar to a circular desk, with a commercial robot at its center that […]
First 3-D printed wind-blade mold, energy-saving nanoparticles earn Sandia national awards
April 25, 2018 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories has won the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer’s national 2018 Technology Focus Award for designing the first wind turbine blades fabricated from a 3-D printed mold, which could dramatically shorten the time and expense of developing new wind energy technology. The labs also won FLC’s Excellence in Technology […]
Techniques could create better material, design in high-consequence uses
September 23, 2015 – 1:00 pm
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Imagine a table with sinuous legs resembling the twisting shape of an inverted swamp cypress trunk. Those flowing legs might make the table stronger, better able to handle whatever someone piles on it. Sandia National Laboratories researchers believe such organically shaped designs, achieved through a technology called topology optimization, could enable better […]