I had no idea Photocentric was developing a space-based resin 3D printer.
But it’s true: the company is well along in the development of “CosmicMaker”, an LCD-based system that could allow for printing of a wide range of resin materials in low-gravity scenarios. The project is sponsored by ESA, with partners Catapult Satellite Applications and Business in Space Growth Network.
Why LCD technology? Photocentric examined the existing resin processes to see how well they matched up with space environment requirements:
| Laser (SLA) | Projector (DLP) | LCD | |
| Low cost | NO | NO | YES |
| Low energy | YES | YES | YES |
| Low weight | NO | NO | YES |
| Small size | NO | NO | YES |
| Low heat | NO | YES | YES |
| Low maintenance | NO | NO | YES |
| High productivity | NO | NO | YES |
Clearly, LCD is the way to go if you’re 3D printing resins.
But hold on, resins are fluids that will blob around in a weightless environment? How could this possibly work? This video shows what’s happening:
It’s a two-part solution: the resin is pushed from one cylinder to the other as printing proceeds. The resin is always sealed inside, as weightless drops of toxic resin are certainly not desirable in anyone’s space station.
Photocentric has tested the concept by literally spinning the CosmicMaker around while printing. The sealed chambers keep the resin under control regardless of the orientation — or gravity.
According to Photocentric, the CosmicMaker can produce “2 tonnes of plastic per day”, which is an impressive quantity. I’m sure they will not be producing two tonnes of parts every day in space, but this is really more about the print speed: this is a fast 3D printer. They say the machine can carry out “one operation per second”, likely the layer speed.
They also describe some mysterious automation:
“An autonomous machine, with gantry moving between CosmicMaker nodes, all carrying out different processes, making different products; one for contact lenses and one for Silicon Carbide heat shields.”
It appears there may be different versions of CosmicMaker for different applications.
Not described are the maintenance and operations processes. I’m wondering about resin handling in a weightless environment: how do you load material into CosmicMaker? Can you change resin types? How would you clean out the machine if required? Lots of questions.
Nevertheless, this is an ingenious design and I’m quite interested to see how this design plays out. The next step for Photocentric is to perform tests of CosmicMaker in short-duration parabolic flights that can briefly simulate weightless conditions. If that works, it’s only a matter of time before the device makes its way into orbit, perhaps even on the International Space Station.
Photocentric, originally a resin manufacturer, began developing resin 3D printers over ten years ago. Since then, they’ve developed increasingly complex systems, ranging from the enormous Titan (the world’s largest LCD 3D printer) to JENI, their massive production system.
I was wondering what their next step might be after JENI, as it seemed to be the culmination of all of their years of effort to achieve mass production capability.
It turns out their next step is right out of this world.
Via Photocentric
