Virginia Tech research helps industry partner forge the future of 3-d printing

Today we're gonna be seeing the additive friction, certain deposition technologies, chatbots working live. So what that entails, a solid rod is going to be pushed through a hollow tube, becomes in contact with a substrate when it starts sticking to the substring. The rod sticking out of the pool starts deforming plastically without melting and it kind of gets out to us. It's a built-in you to being pushed where and rotation and the friction associated with that because it's heating up the material which allows me or that I haven't mentioned have taken place. Then using the C motion of the machine, you can add material layer by layer of producing a final melody is the inventor of the additive friction stir deposition technology. So we are here making machines, Printing parts with the process and also continuing development of the process. We're so excited about what the mount process can bring to so many industries because it's an enabler. We're able to make big things. Pirates that previously could only be forged, were able to make them and alkalis just not possible to print with and other 3D printing technologies. And we're able to make them in open air, which takes any limitation on scale off the table. This is an incredibly scalable technology. We have a primary relationship and an ongoing relationship with the materials science department. And they're so critical for us because they have expertise. They have one of our machines and they have world-class characterization equipment. Because this is a new process, our customers need to know a lot of information about the material that we print. And Virginia Tech is helping us get that information.