{"id":8602,"date":"2013-08-20T13:38:11","date_gmt":"2013-08-20T12:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.compositestoday.com\/?p=8602"},"modified":"2013-08-20T13:39:42","modified_gmt":"2013-08-20T12:39:42","slug":"mit-researchers-making-big-things-out-of-small-pieces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.compositestoday.com\/2013\/08\/mit-researchers-making-big-things-out-of-small-pieces\/","title":{"rendered":"MIT Researchers Making Big Things Out of Small Pieces"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIT researchers have developed a lightweight structure whose tiny blocks can be snapped together much like the bricks of a child\u2019s construction toy. The new material, the researchers say, could revolutionise the assembly of airplanes, spacecraft, and even larger structures, such as dikes and levees.<\/p>\n

Gershenfeld likens the structure, which is made from tiny, identical, interlocking parts to chainmail. The parts, based on a novel geometry that Cheung developed with Gershenfeld, form a structure that is 10 times stiffer for a given weight than existing ultralight materials. But this new structure can also be disassembled and reassembled easily \u2014 such as to repair damage, or to recycle the parts into a different configuration. <\/p>\n

The individual parts can be mass-produced; Gershenfeld and Cheung are developing a robotic system to assemble them into wings, airplane fuselages, bridges or rockets \u2014 among many other possibilities.<\/p>\n

The new design combines three fields of research, Gershenfeld says: fibre composites, cellular materials (those made with porous cells) and additive manufacturing (such as 3-D printing, where structures are built by depositing rather than removing material).<\/p>\n

With conventional composites used in everything from golf clubs and tennis rackets to the components of Boeing and Airbus’s new aircraft each piece is manufactured as a continuous unit. Therefore, manufacturing large structures, such as airplane wings, requires large factories where fibres and resins can be wound and parts heat-cured as a whole, minimising the number of separate pieces that must be joined in final assembly. That requirement meant, for example, Boeing\u2019s suppliers have had to build enormous facilities to make parts for the 787.<\/p>\n

The new technique allows much less material to carry a given load. This could not only reduce the weight of vehicles, lowering fuel and operating costs, but also reduce the costs of construction and assembly, while allowing greater design flexibility. The system is useful for anything you need to move, or put in the air or in space says Cheung, who will begin work this fall as an engineer at NASA\u2019s Ames Research Centre. <\/p>\n

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