An ultra-durable compound created by a Maui-based company using fibres of volcanic rock is being tested in 3D-printed drones at the Rim of the Pacific exercise in Hawaii.
“We’re enabling manufacturers in the world to use our material to relieve their pain points, whatever those pain points are, from drone manufacturing to infrastructure to marinas to totes for shipping,”
Quarries in China, Mongolia and Uzbekistan are currently producing basalt fiber.
“There’s no place in America where you could actually make basalt fiber yet, but there are plants being produced that will do it,”
he said. The composite can be used in 3D printing but also in conventional manufacturing using molds. Eclipse X9 was used for 3D printing fixed-wing drones and a small surface-water drone that are being tested during the RIMPAC exercise. The exercise, which runs through July with participants from 30 nations, includes more than two dozen experiments with unmanned systems, began on June 24.
The U.S. military is dramatically scaling up its drone capacity, moving away from expensive, manufacturing-intensive boats and aircraft to greater use of unmanned vessels. Late last month, the Pentagon established the position of “drone czar” to consolidate and speed up procurement of unmanned systems for U.S. armed forces.
A resilient, 3D-printable compound such as Eclipse X9 has the potential to “reshape military logistics and expeditionary manufacturing and maritime sustainment” because of its strength and the plentiful nature of basalt throughout the island nations of the Pacific. An Eclipse X9-made vessel is resistant to ultraviolet rays, non-conductive, non-magnetic and readily recyclable.
Basalt fiber, which is mixed with thermoplastic polyester to make Eclipse X9, is created by crushing and melting the rock at roughly 1,500 degrees F. It is squeezed into a continuous filament and spun into threads. It is a one-step process that requires no chemical additives, unlike the making of glass or carbon fiber.
Basalt fiber is used in products primarily for its heat resistant qualities, such as in automobile exhaust systems and protective clothing for firefighters and industrial workers. Young envisions the compound as potentially transforming the maritime industry overall.
“I want to enable all the boat builders in the United States and in the world to use large-format additive manufacturing to print their boats for the first time,”
Source: Stars and Stripes