2022 Annual Report 2022 | Page 36

North America ’ s preeminent and longest-running international forum for applied research and industrial applications in manufacturing and design . That challenge is administered by both the Society of Manufacturing Engineers ( SME ) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers .
Tadek Kosmal , the senior team ’ s project lead , commented on the wild semester he and his classmates experienced .
“ A year ago , if you had told me that I ’ d be doing this , that I ’ d have this accomplished , I would have said no way ,” he said . “ Let alone in this short amount of time . Now , every time we show the video of the drone flying off the build plate , you can just see it in people ’ s eyes . Wow . I did that .”
Nic Tomanelli , Omkar Shinde , Ben Nguyen , Matthew Martin , Daniel Chirvasuta , and Nathanael High speak with their industrial mentor , Daniel Braley of Boeing Global Services , before their post-award interview with the Voices AMplified at the RAPID + TCT event . Photo courtesy of the team .
A second mechanical engineering senior design group won SME ’ s Digital Manufacturing Challenge , an annual international competition awarded each year at the largest additive manufacturing ( 3D printing ) industrial conference and exhibition in the United States . This year ’ s competition challenged university students to find innovative ways to use 3D printing to address supply chain issues .
Virginia Tech ’ s team of six students , advised by Williams , his Ph . D . student Sam Pratt , and Daniel Braley , an industrial sponsor from Boeing , used a new metal additive manufacturing process to fabricate hard-to-find replacement parts for Boeing ’ s older planes . They achieved lower costs , shorter production time , and even made the parts more lightweight than the originals .
The student team first used topology optimization to redesign an old part to reduce part mass while ensuring that the part could survive the required loading . The team then used the DREAMS Lab ’ s new hybrid wire arc additive manufacturing system that produces layered parts with wire-arc welding . During the print , a CNC milling tool in the machine planed each layer surface to ensure consistency in thickness and quality . After all the metal layers were complete , the CNC router was again used to improve the part ’ s surface finish , to further reduce part mass , and to carefully finish mounting surfaces with high precision . This yielded a final product optimized for strength and weight .
The focus of the project wasn ’ t on producing one part , but rather on delivering a process to the company that could enable low-cost , on-site production of replacement aircraft components . As a result , aircraft would no longer be grounded while waiting for
36