‘If you can dream it, you can print it’

Amit Bandyopadhyay searched through a duffle bag of bizarre metallic objects, setting aside samples of his research across his desk. He removed a tiny striped cylinder from the bag and pointed to the three different colored layers.

“This,” he said, holding the one-inch cylinder out in the palm of his hand, “this is the future of manufacturing.”

The cylinder itself might not have been worth much, but to Bandyopadhyay, a professor in the WSU School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, the cylinder was a proof of concept – proof that his research in additive manufacturing (AM), the process of joining materials layer by layer to create real objects from 3D modeling software, could be capable of creating items made of multiple materials with just the click of a button.

“AM has changed the paradigm of the world of manufacturing,” Bandyopadhyay said. “If you can dream it, you can print it.”

AM is the next major step in 3D printing technology and Bandyopadhyay said the implications of it becoming common practice are game changing. Currently, a business selling tangible goods might need to order products to be made, packaged and shipped months or a year in advance.

The process of creating these products with multiple parts and materials could be streamlined down to one simple process with AM, allowing the manufacturer to meet demands for specific products in real time.

“AM is ‘on demand’ manufacturing,” Bandyopadhyay said.

Manufacturing companies in the future would not need to be as product specific, but would instead require only the raw materials and the printing technology.

Smaller demands for specific products would become considerably cheaper and more practical to produce. For example, satellite and rocket parts are expensive to manufacture and are often not needed in high quantities. AM could produce higher quality parts than those currently manufactured as well.

“Old methods of manufacturing cannot make this,” Bandyopadhyay said, in reference to the cylinder.

It is comprised of titanium, ceramic, and a composite layer in the middle, which AM has made into a single solid object. Bonds made by welding or gluing objects together, in the traditionally manufactured way, are weak and can break more easily than objects made with AM.

These capabilities are particularly attractive to a few specialty companies and organizations, which is why NASA invited Bandyopadhyay to the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, last week to present his AM research for space applications to the Department of Defense and NASA.

The government is not the only one taking interest in AM. Aerojet Rocketdyne, a rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer, has backed the research of Bandyopadhyay and his students since 2012, according to Alyssa Patrick, communication coordinator for the WSU Office of Economic Development.

Bandyopadhyay concedes that it may be some time before any companies take on the research themselves. The science is still at a basic level and confidence in this technology is not high enough. Nevertheless, Bandyopadhyay seems content simply with giving his students the opportunity to experiment with the technology and learn from their mistakes.

Success in the lab does not come easily, but Bandyopadhyay is confident that AM will lead to a generation that will completely rethink how everything is made: “Just print it.”