SBIR Phase II: Solar Concentrator Unit for Low-Cost Metal Additive Manufacturing

SBIR 第二阶段：用于低成本金属增材制造的太阳能聚光装置

• 批准号: 2026177
• 负责人: Andrew Brewer
• 金额: $ 95.06万
• 依托单位: BLUESHIFT, LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Cooperative Agreement
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-09-15 至 2023-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2026177&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; Solar; Concentrator

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project comes from the development of a concentrated solar 3D printer capable of operating on the Moon. The 3D printer efficiently harnesses the heat of the Sun to fuse lunar soil into custom parts for producing mechanical components and structures. The resources on the Moon, particularly sunlight and soil, enable in situ parts production without the expensive step of launching materials from Earth. This capability for in-space manufacturing could be used for many applications. Furthermore, the proposed technology can be used to develop a low-cost, consumer 3D printer capable of fabricating custom components of metal, glass, and many previously inaccessible materials. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will advance development of a Solar Additive Manufacturing (SAM) test platform. This project will explore several feedstock materials, including lunar soil simulants, glass, and a select metal. Test coupons will be produced to characterize part quality and strength and iterative testing will be performed to optimize printer performance. Custom mechanical components will then be produced from lunar soil simulants as a demonstration of practical parts for lunar manufacturing. The final stage of the project will be to reduce system complexity and design a lightweight, purpose-built solar 3D printer. This effort will produce a low-cost solar printer ready for the consumer market as well as a lunar payload prototype design for testing in a lunar environment.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力来自于能够在月球上运行的聚光太阳能3D打印机的开发。3D打印机有效地利用太阳的热量将月球土壤融合成定制部件，用于生产机械部件和结构。月球上的资源，特别是阳光和土壤，可以在原地生产零件，而无需从地球发射材料的昂贵步骤。这种空间制造能力可用于许多应用。此外，所提出的技术可用于开发低成本的消费型3D打印机，能够制造金属，玻璃和许多以前无法使用的材料的定制组件。这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目将推进太阳能增材制造（SAM）测试平台的开发。该项目将探索几种原料，包括月球土壤模拟物，玻璃和一种精选金属。将生产测试样本以表征部件质量和强度，并将进行迭代测试以优化打印机性能。然后将用月球土壤模拟物生产定制机械部件，作为月球制造的实际部件的演示。该项目的最后阶段将是降低系统复杂性，并设计一种轻量级的专用太阳能3D打印机。这项工作将产生一个低成本的太阳能打印机准备消费市场以及月球有效载荷原型设计在月球环境中进行测试。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。