Regardless of your stance on nuclear weapons and energy, one thing we can probably all agree on is that this powerful and hazardous technology must be kept extremely secure. In order, to accomplish this goal of security in the United States by the Department of Energy, the Kansas City-based National Security Campus, managed by Honeywell, is constantly working to manufacture non-nuclear components with the goal of reducing the nuclear stockpile of the U.S. For numerous years already, the Kansas City plant has been utilizing multiple methods of 3D technologies, such as topology optimization, in order to design and produce these non-nuclear components. I had the opportunity to speak to the Chief Technology Officer of the NSC, David McMindes, about the different ways that 3D printing technology has improved the way their nuclear weapon fixtures are designed, prototyped, and manufactured. McMindes starts by giving me a brief introduction to how the NSC and additive manufacturing became acquainted.
“We’ve been using crude 3D printing for about 10 years or so, and when the commercial availability of some of the more advanced printers in metal and other plastics came about is when we really got into it, because we saw the value that 3D printing provides as far as speed, agility, cost reduction, and design options,” McMindes told me.
At the moment, McMindes and the NSC are utilizing 3D printing for prototyping the various fixtures meant to secure the US’s nuclear stockpile, and can now fabricate various designs in a much quicker and more efficient manner. The NSC is also heavily involved in material characterization at the moment, as well, testing different high-grade alloys to research their efficiency and practicality as a non-nuclear component material. Always searching for a way to improve their production process, the NSC has experimented with 3D printing in plastics, polymers, metals, and electronic circuitry.
“A lot of what were doing right now are things like prototyping and material characterization, along with tooling and fixtures around different systems,” McMindes explained. “We’re doing a lot of work to characterize different alloys, trying to understand how they react to printing, what kind of properties they have, and how reliable they are.”
But perhaps the most impressive use of 3D printing technology by the NSC thus far may be their implementation of topology optimization into the design of these fixtures. The engineering team is experimenting with designing certain fixtures with topology optimization by using resonant frequencies from specific waves, which has resulted in computer-designed models that are both efficient in shape and much lighter in weight and material. Once the NSC places the contact points for the design, the computer meticulously generates an often organically-shaped fixture that offers support and security in only the necessary areas, resulting in up to a 90% reduction in weight and much more efficient functionality.
“You and I, as humans, think very symmetrically and in geometric shapes, but what we have found, a lot of times, is that that’s overkill. The part is too heavy, it’s way too designed,” McMindes explained. “So, what we’re doing is letting the computer design the part, and it’s only going to put material where the simulation says that it’s needed.”
My favorite story of McMindes was about how the NSC was able to prepare their engineers for the forthcoming onslaught of using 3D printing technology. McMindes and the NSC went out and purchased 30 of MakerBot’s lower-end 3D printers just to see what their engineers could do with the technology. McMindes claims that by using the MakerBot printers, the NSC engineers began to think about production in a much bigger way, thanks to the quick and easy production value that even these lower-end MakerBot desktop printers actually held. In fact, the NSC saved a massive amount of money in development parts thanks to the utilization of 3D printers within prototyping non-nuclear components.
“Once they saw what they could do, they bought into it very heavily,” McMindes went on. “What’s funny is that with those 30 MakerBot printers we saved $10 million in development costs because we didn’t need metal parts or assembly; we could just print an entire prototype right there.”
Whether they are attempting to utilize a flight or car environment to design a specific fixture, using resonant frequencies to create computer-generated designs has proven fruitful for the NSC, as far as cost and efficiency goes. McMindes has further plans for how to make 3D printing technology even more involved in the process of reducing and protecting the nuclear stockpile of the USA, from creating a Wiki page detailing all of their experimental findings and production outcomes, to making 3D printing as prominent as other widely-used traditional manufacturing methods.
“What I’d like to have is a Wiki page that you pull up and tell the computer ‘Here’s what I want do with it” – whether it’s flight environment or fixture, recommend titanium versus stainless steel, or whatever it is – then they send that to the IP address and the machine prints it and the part is done,” McMindes finished. “Productionizing that capability is the next step, to make it as common as our traditional machines are today.”
Whether it’s prototyping, creating computer-driven designs, or manufacturing high-grade products with advanced materials, 3D printing technology has taken the NSC and much of the USA’s military complex by storm. What McMindes and the NSC are showing us here is how 3D printing and topology optimization can help create the most secure, reliable and organically designed components to help keep the nuclear stockpile of USA from endangering our world.
