Langley Research Center

Langley Research Center (LaRC) Oldest of NASA's field centers, LaRC is located in Hampton, Virginia and directly borders Poquoson, Virginia and Langley Air Force Base. LaRC focuses primarily on aeronautical research, though the Lunar Lander was flight-tested at this facility and a number of high profile space missions are planned and designed on site. Established in 1917 by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the Center currently devotes two-thirds of its programs to aeronautics, and the rest to space. LaRC researchers use more than 40 wind tunnels to study improved aircraft and spacecraft safety, performance, and efficiency. Between 1958, when NASA started Project Mercury and 1963, LaRC served as the main office of the Man-In-Space program, with the office being transferred to the Manned Spacecraft Center (now the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center) in Houston in 1962-63.

Fabrication Research and Development

Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication (EBF³)

The EBF³ process produces structural metallic parts with immense strength and is conductive to performing repairs in remote locations. In addition, the ability to build functionally graded, unitized parts directly from CAD data offers enhanced performance in a great deal of applications. Just rescently the NASA Langley Center has become home to this new type of machining process, which is used by their new room-sized electron-emitting device. This machine uses a High Frequency, 42kW, X-ray emitting, electron beam gun, (A cousin to the ones found in television Cathode Ray Tubes), wich, at high speeds, melts either aluminum or titanium wire, positioned by dual independent wire feeders, into the desired 3-dimensional metallic parts with material strength comparable to that of wrought products. The machine's deposition rate is 150 in³/hr, similar to that of its plastic-fabricating counterpart, (Used for making new, and inovative toys, model parts, and industrial strength teflon parts). Metallic parts are also built directly from CAD, without molds or tools, leaving the end product with absolutely no porosity. Other facts include:

A 6-axis positioning
Heated or cooled platen
1x10^-6 torr vacuum capability (Needed for the high power Electron beam gun)
72" x 24" x 24" build envelope
Power efficiency in excess of 90%
Near 100% feedstock efficiency
Can deposit reflective materials not processable with lasers
Potential portable EBF³ system (Under Development)
Potential Fabrication & repair from the plants to the planets
Research assistence for developing large scale fabrication in space

Overall, Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication is a layer-additive technique that offers potential for improvements in cost, weight, and performance to enhance mission success for aircraft, launch vehicles, and spacecraft.

Plastic Fabrication

Right now, Langley Research Center also houses a large collection of various, inexpensive plastic reformation machines, that are critical in the freeform fabrication department for faster timing, better precision, and larger quantities of low-cost toy, model, and industrial plastic parts. The fabrication of plastic parts is not all that dissimillar to the EBF³ process, except the melting aparatus is a thin, grated heating element, but other than that they are quite simillar, eg. they are both run completely by CAD data. Plastic reformation machines have also come to the interest of graphical artist, opening a whole new world of bringing their masterpieces to life, all with a flick of a switch.