On March 8, at the JEC Innovation Awards ceremony in Paris, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) will be honored as the proud recipient of the “JEC Composites Magazine Special Prize” for its advances in Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) technology. The award also named Cincinnati Incorporated and Dassault Systèmes as key partners with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and recognized the contributions each organization made towards the development of BAAM technology, a radically new platform for the additive manufacturing of polymer and composite structures.
The BAAM system encompasses a number of key innovations that enable large-scale 3D printing. Essentially, it will enable business to 3D entire objects – up to 20 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 6 feet tall – instead of just small parts. Cincinnati Incorporated and ORNL made headlines back in 2014 when they unveiled a 3D printer capable of printing objects 10 times larger and 200 times faster than most other printers on the market. They continued to improve their capabilities throughout 2015, a new 3D printer that could print 10 times faster than their 2014 model, capable of outputting 100 pounds of ABS plastic in a single hour. These capabilities gave ORNL the ability to 3D print the vintage Shelby Cobra featured on this blog in January 2015.
End-to-end modelling and simulation software makes the transition from ideas to reality much simpler, and Dassault Systèmes’ advanced 3D design and collaboration technologies have become integral parts of ORNL’s simulation and modeling process. Technology from Dassault Systèmes’ SIMULIA, BIOVIA, ENOVIA, DELMIA, and CATIA brands are used to drive research and innovation by dozens of companies, universities and institutes across the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI) consortium, of which Oak Ridge National Laboratory is a member.
At this year’s the JEC Innovation Awards ceremony, ORNL and its BAAM partners will be recognized for two fundamental advancements to the platform:
- Using screw-extrusion technology for deposition, similar to what is utilized in the injection molding industry, which allows the BAAM system to deposit material 200 times faster than existing systems and uses a low-cost pelletized feedstock to reduce the cost of production by a factor of 20
- Developing an industry-first ability to deposit carbon fiber-reinforced plastic pellets, which can double the strength of components and increase the stiffness by a factor of 4 to 7.
In short, the BAAM platform from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Cincinnati Inc., and with the help of Dassault Systèmes’, enables 3D design and printing of large structures much cheaper, faster, and better than ever before. Through continued partnership with the ORNL, Dassault Systèmes is excited to see what this joint effort can accomplish as additive manufacturing continues to evolve. For more information on Dassault Systèmes’ partnership with ORNL and IACMI, read about how we’re helping create a new era of manufacturing.
Image credits:
Shelby Cobra via Times Free Press and Cincinnati Incorporated
