这美国空军快速维持办公室（RSO）宣布了第一个结论高级制造奥林匹克运动会(AMO), with five technical design challenge winners and a total of nearly $1M in prizes.
这virtual event，，，，which took place from October 20 – 23, brought together a whole host of industry experts, academics, and government personnel to witness the potential of advanced manufacturing, including 3D printing, in the defense sector. Aside from the technical challenges, the conference comprised a number technology demonstrations, presentations from high-profile speakers, and virtual networking segments.
What were the technical challenges trying to achieve?
这five challenges were ultimately intended to solve some of the issues faced by the Air Force when trying to implement additive manufacturing into its sustainment projects. A total of 64 teams from startups, large companies, and universities participated, each showcasing their solutions to real-world problems.
内森·帕克，，，，Deputy Program Executive Officer for the RSO, explains: “The Technical Challenges were designed to spark innovation, collaboration and technological evolution in advanced manufacturing and push the boundaries for the U.S. Air Force. The teams who competed all showed incredible innovation and passion for solving these barriers in the Air Force’s ability to realize the full benefits of advanced manufacturing.”
这prize pot for the Olympics stood at just under $1M, with five first place teams taking home $100k each, second place teams taking home $50k, and third place teams taking home $40k. The capital will be used to further develop the winning ideas and the challenges were judged by a panel of 25 subject matter experts.
第一名的技术挑战获奖者
第一个挑战是技术数据软件包中继，该继电器使团队准确地重新创建了现有TDP在现场使用的3D打印零件。桌面3D打印机制造商makergear使用Makergear M3 FDM系统和天然PLA灯丝，获得了即时的3D打印工作的第一名。
这second challenge, the Box of Parts Floor Exercise, was more geared towards 3D scanning and reverse engineering. Teams were tasked with automating a hands-free scanning system to reverse engineer broken military components with no existing drawing packages.威奇托州立大学利用Faro 8轴Quantum5 Faroarm和FAROBlu 3D scanner。
Next up was the Material Hurdles challenge, which involved identifying and demonstrating new aluminum alloys for use with additive manufacturing systems. 3D printing materials specialistElementum 3Dtook first place for suggesting the use of high-strength 7050 RAM2 aluminum powder on anEOS M290，取代更容易裂纹的7075粉末。
第四次挑战，即批准冲刺，看到团队重新设计和3D打印聚合物替换零件，以在F-16喷气机上快速部署，这是在空军的维持项目中通常闻所未闻的时间表。Stress Engineering Services，，，，起源，，，，andNtopologyshared first place for delivering an optimized DLP clamp design. The team used a data-driven AI approach, which provided daily part, material, and process improvements via a feedback loop.
这final challenge was the Supply Chain Marathon, where teams proposed supply chain management strategies for delivering 3D printed military parts on time and within budget. The grand prize was taken bySIMBA Chain，，，，a blockchain service platform, for demonstrating how its comprehensive theoretical ‘Rapid Additive Manufacturing Lab’ could be used to support military sustainment efforts. The lab would contain all the equipment and resources necessary for the 3D printing of aircraft components, runway repair parts, and even PPE.
Design challenges in additive manufacturing
Design challenges, which are commonly held in the 3D printing industry, drive innovation with a sense of competitiveness. Just last month, the 35 finalists for the2020 3D打印purmundus challenge被揭示。每个设计都展示了一个“harmony between geometry and materials”, with concepts cen围绕药物，4D印刷，机器人技术，运动学，航空航天，体育用品，甚至食物。
Elsewhere, the U.S. National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute美国制造recently launched a ‘direct call-to-action’ challenge, together with the Air Force andGE研究。Dubbed theOpen Source-Additive Scanning Implementation Strategy(OASIS) Challenge, it has a prize pool of $68,000. OASIS invites participants to submit innovative open-source scan strategy codes, algorithms, and methods to aid in the advancement of powder bed fusion technology.
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特色图像显示了空军在空军上的成员。通过USAF RSO的照片。
