【科技资讯】雷声公司用3D打印技术造出下一代制导武器几乎所有组件
[据3Ders网站2015年7月16日报道] 随着航空航天产业不断探索增材制造应用，范围从飞机发动机内部组件到安全带带扣，增材制造的发展也已在其他类型产品如导弹制造过程中找到应用。
最近，雷声公司导弹系统分部的研究人员表示，他们已经制造出下一代制导导弹，其组装所用的几乎每个组件都可用增材制造来生产。在这些零件中，包括火箭发动机、导弹体鳍、引导和控制系统部件等等。
全3D打印导弹的开发是雷声公司广泛推行采用增材制造工艺补充或取代传统制造工艺生产导弹零件的一部分。尽管对公司来说使用增材制造工艺，如直接金属激光烧结来生产导弹体外壳，但工程师也在寻找更先进的应用案例，包括生产电路、雷声公司革命性的氮化镓发射器外壳，以及导炮弹定制的鳍片设计。
雷声公司工程师杰里米·丹福思表示，“你可能会在战场上拥有这些，机器制造机器，用户可以按需打印，这就是愿景。”
此外，拥有和维护高端设备的更低成本，以及能够不断修改现有的低成本3D打印机也是雷声公司研究人员寻求使用3D打印技术，为导弹武器生产每个组件，包括电路的可能性的原因之一。除了减少与传统制造相关的成本，其也设计师和工程师能够快速、反复地在数小时内而并非数周甚至数月内进行新零件设计。
雷声公司增材制造经理莉娅赫尔表示，“3D打印有朝一日会简化所有制造工艺。当我们打印某些东西，我们有更少的零部件，所以你的供应链变得更简单。你的开发周期更短，你获得零部件的速度更快。”
当然，使用3D打印还允许设计师和工程师尝试那些采用传统工艺无法实现的新结构。
雷声公司从事增材制造未来使用研究工作的工程师特拉维斯梅伯里表示，“你可以设计对机器来说不可能实现的内部特征，我们正在努力实现热改进和轻型结构的新设计，这些都是采用任务制造方法都无法实现的。”
不出所料，研究人员面临的最大挑战之一是开发可打印的复杂电子电路和微波器件。最近，雷声公司在马萨诸塞大学卢维尔分校研究机构工程师正在寻求生产防空反导系统上所用复杂雷达和制导系统的新方法。
虽然电路已可用喷墨方式进行打印，但雷声公司希望其研究人员能够打印更复杂的三维电路结构，而并非常用的平面硅芯片。他们希望能够直接将电路打印至导弹系统中，使其成为一个完整的集成系统。
雷声公司在马萨诸塞大学卢维尔分校研究机构主任克里斯·麦卡罗尔表示，“以前战士可在战场上打印导弹，你需要质量，可控工艺来制造所有的组件材料：金属定位板和塑料连接器，处理器用的半导体，以及热力学和推进系统。较难的部分是使这些部件进行连接，举例来说，集成的控制电路接收到点燃引信的命令。在一些相对短的时间内放入芯片，并通过打印将其连接。或者未来，也许你只是打印出来。”
（来源：国防科技信息网，编译：工业和信息化部电子科学技术情报研究所 宋文文）
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附原文：
Raytheon now able to 3D print nearly every component of guided missile system
July 16, 2015 | By Simon
As the aerospace industry continues to explore applications for additive manufacturing ranging from components within airplane engines to even seat belt buckles, it’s not surprising that the developments have found their way into other types of products, too - such as missiles.
Recently, researchers at Raytheon Missile Systems have stated that they have already created that uses additive manufacturing to produce nearly every component within its assembly. Among other parts, these include rocket engines, body fins, parts for the guidance and control systems, and more.
The development of a fully 3D printed missile is part of a company-wide push to supplement or replace traditional manufacturing processes for their missile parts with additive manufacturing processes. While it would make sense for the company to use processes such as direct metal laser sintering to produce a body shell, the engineers are also looking into more advanced use cases including the production of electrical circuits, housings for the company's revolutionary gallium nitride transmitters and custom fin designs for guided artillery shells.
“You could potentially have these in the field,” said Raytheon engineer Jeremy Danforth, who is among those who have printed working rocket motors. “Machines making machines. The user could [print on demand]. That’s the vision.”
Among other factors, the lower costs of owning and maintaining high-end equipment and the ability to increasingly modify existing low-cost 3D printers were enough of a reason for the company’s researchers to look into the possibility of creating every component of a guided weapon using 3D printing including the circuitry. In addition to reducing the costs associated with traditional manufacturing, it also allows for the designers and engineers to design quickly and iteratively with the ability to have their new part in hand within hours rather than weeks or even months.
“3-D printing could someday streamline [all] manufacturing process,” explains Leah Hull, additive manufacturing manager for Raytheon.
“When we print something, we have fewer piece parts, so your supply chain becomes simpler. Your development cycles are shorter; you’re getting parts much faster.”
Of course, using 3D printing also allows for designers and engineers to experiment with new structures that otherwise wouldn’t be possible to manufacture using traditional processes.
“You can design internal features that might be impossible to machine,” said Raytheon engineer Travis Mayberry, who is researching future uses of additive manufacturing and 3-D printing. “We’re trying new designs for thermal improvements and lightweight structures, things we couldn’t achieve with any other manufacturing method.”
Unsurprisingly, one of the biggest challenges for the researchers has been in the development of creating printable complex electronic circuits and microwave components. Currently, engineers at the Raytheon University of Massachusetts Lowell Research Institute are looking into new ways of producing the sophisticated radars and guidance systems used in the company’s air and missile defense systems.
While circuits can already be printed using an inkjet method, Raytheon is hoping that their research will enable their researchers to print more complicated circuit structures in three dimensions rather than the commonly-used flat silicon chip. From here, they hope to be able to print the circuitry directly into the missiles themselves as a complete and integrated system.
Of course, while 3D printing a missile is one thing, being able to 3D print a missile while out in the field is an entirely different kind of challenge.
“Before a warfighter can print a missile in the field,” says Raytheon University of Massachusetts Lowell Research Institute Director Chris McCarroll, “you need quality, controlled processes to fabricate all the component materials: the metallic strongbacks, and the plastic connectors, the semiconductors for processors, and the energetics and propulsion systems. The hard part is then making the connections between these components, as an example, the integrated control circuit that receives the command to light the fuse. At some relatively near-term point you may have to place chips down and interconnect them with printing. Or, in the future, maybe you’ll just print them.”
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