SBIR/STTR Award attributes
Both afloat and shoreside Navy environments can easily exceed the recommended operating conditions for typical commercial electronics. Commercial AM machine vendors primarily focus on increasing print quality or print strength, but little is done to enhance resiliency of the printer components (such as the power supply or microcontroller) to withstand extreme environmental conditions. This is simply because there is no need for this in the typical COTS printer. Vendors assume that the machines will be used in an office-like environment or in a room that is relatively environmentally protected or controlled. Additionally, these office environments have air circulation that Navy environments often do not, which poses risks to operators inhaling AM emissions in close quarters such as on a ship. Therefore, to successfully deploy AM technology in unique Navy environments, a solution is required to protect AM machines and the operators. Also, as AM technology is constantly evolving, a solution that can universally support varying AM machine types and future models is critical. To directly address the Navy’s needs, Mimyr proposes the Field Rugged Environmental Stability Habitat for Additive Manufacturing (FRESH-AM). As the name suggests, the proposed solution creates an isolated habitat with a controlled internal environment to enable different types of non-ruggedized printers or machines to operate in the field. FRESH-AM focuses on integration of simple and reliable components into a modular system that can support a variety of AM machines in a variety of environments in a plug-and-play manner.
