A group of engineers working at NASA’s Langely Research Center have created and electron beam device that makes metal parts, one layer at a time. You start by drawing the part you want to build, than you push a button, and the device creates the part. They call it the Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication or, EBF3.
The drawing breaks up the object into layers. This helps to guide the electron beam in reproducing the object. Then the material must be compatible ith the electron beam so that it can be heated in a stream of energy.
This may be a huge breakthrough when it comes to aviation and spaceflight. This might be able to reduce the time that needs to spent on creating the materials needed to build the vehicles. They say it may also help in the medical community with creating different tools and such that may help doctors operate better, becuase the equipement can be built more precisely.
Here is a link to the article.
Q2-1
This Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication device does sound pretty interesting. The simplicity of its use sounds like a very impressive breakthrough. “Simply pushing a button and out comes that part”, sounds pretty great to me. If developed better this could possibly be used in many areas of work. From car part factories and mechanics to construction and building products, this device certainly could come in handy. Obviously it isn’t as simple as a replicator in Star Trek but the potential of this process could be better developed and could be out of this world. You know those engineers at Langely always make awesome things. Something Ryan did not point out is this; in order to make the Electron Freeform Fabrication or EBF3 device to work, there are two key requirements. These requirements are a detailed three-dimensional drawing of the object that is to be created must be available, and the material the object is to be made from must be present for use with an electron beam. Great article Dr. Meyers!