China3D printingNet, September 3, industrial 3D printer manufacturer AON3D has received 11.5 million US dollars of funding from diversified investors. The startup revealed that due to a recent partnership with Pittsburgh-based lunar logistics company Astrobotic, the funds will be used for mass production of end-use thermoplastic parts, including the first 3D printed object that successfully landed on the moon. Therefore, when Astrobotic’s Peregrine Moon Lander (PM1) Mission will land on the lunar weathering layer in 2022, it will carry space-grade AON 3D printed end-use parts, such as fixtures, brackets, and propeller prototype materials made of high-grade thermoplastics .
Astrobotic 3D uses AON3D’s machine to print the prototype of the propeller. Image courtesy of AON3D.
Led by SineWave Ventures, an early-stage investment capital company in Washington, DC, the new Series A financing also includes investments from serial entrepreneur Kevin Ryan’s early-stage venture fund AlleyCorp, California startup accelerator Y Combinator and several other investors, including B and other Canadian entities Corp. Bank BDC Capital, export credit agency Export Development Canada (EDC), and Panache Ventures, the country’s most active seed stage venture capital fund.
Other participants in this round of financing include San Francisco-based venture capital firm MANA Ventures, which invests in early-stage companies that disrupt traditional industries, as well as top social media influencers Josh Richards and Griffin Johnson, and unnamed Silicon Valley angel investors . Overall, AON3D raised a total of US$14.2 million in two rounds of financing. The first round was a seed round supported by seven investors.
On Kickstarter successfulAfter raising more than $70,000 for AON3D’s first high-quality industrial 3D printer, the company began commercializing its next high-performance system, AON-M, in 2017. Since then, the Montreal startup has launched AON-M2 launched in 2018, designed for printing with high-performance materials such as PEEK, ULTEM, nylon, and polycarbonate. It is followed by the 2020 high-capacity AON-M2 2020 system and the latest industrial 3D printer in its flagship series: the high-temperature AON M2+ for printing high-performance end-use parts.
Kevin Han, CEO of AON3D, stated that his company’s 3D printers can use any of the highest grade thermoplastics to make the “lightest” and “strongest” end-use parts.
“We believe that the future of 3D printing will be more open source and economically more accessible, so all companies can use the same hardware as top companies. This is how we model AON3D and build our AON M2+ printer. We believe Our visionary investors and partners like Astrobotic, they put the highest trust in our hardware.”
AON3D M2+ printer from AON3D. Image courtesy of AON3D.
Through a new collaboration with Astrobotic, AON3D will create parts for the worst environment known to mankind: space. Beyond the earth, spacecraft components need to withstand harsh conditions such as radiation, extreme temperature changes, the effects of space debris, and vacuum. As part of this “historic lunar partnership”-as described by AON3D-the space-level 3D object is expected to be the first to successfully land on the moon on Astrobotic’s robotic Peregrine lunar lander.
The spacecraft will travel to the moon on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan Centaur rocket, which is powered by two BE-4 engines manufactured by another AON3D customer Blue Origin. Once landed, hundreds of mission-critical components, such as NASA’s Neutron Spectrometer System (NSS) or Mexican Space Agency’s lunar science instruments, and private payloads, such as Japan’s commercial Yaki Lunar Rover, will become the next stage of space Part of science, exploration and business on the moon.
As part of the cooperation, Peregrine will also land 3D printed components on the moon, including DHL’s 3D printed “MoonBoxes”, which can hold souvenirs that will be stored on the moon for hundreds of years. In addition, Astrobotic’s lunar lander will carry two minted cryptocurrencies, which are packaged in MoonBoxes made of high-performance materials to reduce quality. The collaboration also produced hundreds of thermoplastic 3D printed fixtures and brackets, which replaced metal parts on the lander, ensuring the integrity of avionics and electrical systems, while reducing vehicle mass, enabling design freedom and rapid production. Peregrine’s avionics are critical because they perform all commands and data processing for the lander.
AON3D and Astrobotic showed off DHL MoonBoxes, which were 3D printed using the AON3D M2+ system. Image courtesy of AON3D.
Astrobotic relies on industrial AON M2+ and high-performance materials, from full-size, economic prototypes to aerospace-grade end-use parts on a single machine. In addition, in order to meet the requirements of aerospace, 3D printed parts need to withstand temperatures between 260 degrees Fahrenheit (127 degrees Celsius) and -280 degrees Fahrenheit (-173 degrees Celsius), which is 200 to 1000 times stronger than the Earth’s radiation, and more The vibration sound. More than 180 decibels. In addition, engineers carefully selected materials that will not outgas under pressure, including specific polymers such as ULTEM and PEEK.
Components that can withstand the huge challenges of launch and space flight also require high strength-to-weight ratios, flame retardancy, and chemical resistance. Of course, for any single part, these are many qualities, but AON3D believes that as the moon landing mission approaches the launch date, its 3D printer can do the job well. AON M2+ can use high-temperature materials to make large parts, and its double extrusion system can print multiple materials in a single piece, which is critical to the success of its 3D printing space-level components.
Astrobotic’s Peregrine Moon Lander prototype. Image courtesy of AON3D.
So far, any commercial moon landing plans have been postponed. But just like AON3D, Astrobotic is very confident that it will be the first company to send a payload to the moon, landing in a large crater Lacus Mortis near the natural satellite.Astrobotic, also known as the “Moon Company”, was founded by Carnegie Mellon University professor Red Whittaker and several of his colleagues in 2007 to win the now-defunct Google Lunar X Prize competition-this is a An international race to send the first private spacecraft to the moon. moon. The company also plans to conduct the second and third missions to the south pole of the moon in 2023, carrying Astrobotic’s MoonRanger and NASA’s Volatiles to investigate the polar exploration rover (VIPER), respectively. With the advancement of space technology and the progress of launching to the moon, we can expect to learn more about 3D printed parts leaving the earth, going to the moon, Mars and beyond.
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