PRIME ISS Ground Prototype

Justin McElderry; Gabriel Holden; Henry Kaplan; Julian Turner

NASA NTRS · 20240015963

PRIME ISS Ground Prototype

Justin McElderry·Gabriel Holden·Henry Kaplan·Julian Turner

Abstract

In Additive Manufacturing (AM) with metal powders, layers of material are deposited and fused to form metal 3D parts. However, in most cases, remnant powder still must be removed from interior cavities and channels to fully clean the part before use. Ground demonstrations such as ultrasonic cleaning have been proven to work during ground testing at MSFC and Florida State University. However, manufacturing in the low gravity environment of space introduces challenges to this powder removal. Therefore, if this concept could be demonstrated in microgravity, the ability to clean AM parts or contaminated parts can bring new advancements to in-space manufacturing (ISM). The goal of this work was to make significant progress on developing an ISS payload using the ultrasonic technology called Powder Removal in Microgravity Environments (PRIME). This would also create new opportunities for in-space manufacturing (ISM) and the additive manufacturing community to develop new standards and practices for powder removal and the cleaning of contaminated parts in space.

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Microgravity Ultrasonics AM Part Cleaning

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BibTeX RIS

Justin McElderry, Gabriel Holden, Henry Kaplan, Julian Turner. PRIME ISS Ground Prototype. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20240015963

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