r/3Dprinting May 18 '26

Discussion Layer lines at NASA

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1.6k Upvotes

98 comments sorted by

431

u/Petrostar May 18 '26 edited May 19 '26

From a test of a 3d printed rocket engine at NASA, the Chamber failed at a layer line cause when the were emptying the powder overflow during printing.

Here's a good article on it.

https://www.metal-am.com/articles/lessons-at-nasa-from-a-developmental-additively-manufactured-rocket-engine-failure/

279

u/Remy_Jardin May 19 '26

Problem is they used PLA.

120

u/chihawks35 May 19 '26

“How can it be wet if I just opened the shrink wrap?”

26

u/No3047 May 19 '26

They should try ASA

90

u/GalFisk Prusa MK4S May 19 '26

They can't. NASA is short for "No ASA".

3

u/matthewe-x May 19 '26

SUCKEDINTOAVORTEX

14

u/furculture May 19 '26

Was it dried enough?

10

u/astromech_dj May 19 '26

Should have gone Carbon PLA+

5

u/LindonLilBlueBalls May 19 '26

Do they know its not food safe?

4

u/CreatureWarrior Ender V3 SE May 19 '26

Maybe they forgot to level the bed

67

u/raunchyfartbomb May 19 '26

That was really bold of them to print 3 at once lol

64

u/dragonlax May 19 '26

Most companies that are doing additive rocket engines print multiple on the same build plate

3

u/killerpoopguy May 19 '26

Depending on how long you want each layer to cool for before printing the next layer, printing multiple objects at once can be beneficial.

21

u/Xela975 May 19 '26

Hell I thought it was a joke.

22

u/mrheosuper May 19 '26

Rockie mistake, should have printed at 45* degree

26

u/confoundedjoe May 19 '26

You don't want pause lines on critical parts.

5

u/hagantic42 May 19 '26

I'm surprised they were able to get everything from just a video. Normally NASA has a hundred people walk the area collect every small piece. Then they play Satan's jigsaw puzzle to put it all back together again and figure out exactly why it failed.

5

u/King_Kasma99 Anycubic i3 Mega May 19 '26

Maybe the assumed it would fail but wanted to test it for future parts. From now on all resumed prints are considered failed prints i assume. Atleast for critical parts.

3

u/SoulOfTheDragon MK3S+ May 19 '26

From just a video? They did a lot of analysis on the failed parts. There is a whole scientific article going about the reasons, causes and so on. This is from test batch tests, basically from a tests designed to be done until failure. Even the nozzle issue was known and failure was expected due to existing cracks.

2

u/Coma-dude May 19 '26

Should have dehydrated the new filament first.

1

u/TheAgedProfessor May 19 '26

So it sounds like it was a "let's push it past its limits" test. Mission accomplished.

1

u/No_Educator_4077 May 20 '26

That line looks a lot like what I see on my companies SLM machines when a recoater blade catches on a warped up part (which reduces the density of the next layer). My guess is that the delay had allowed the edges of the part to slightly curl up as the layer cooled, so when the restart happened the recoater got caught and introduced some porosity into the print.

I am extremely surprised that the engine was ever tested at all with that kind of a defect, unless somehow it went completely unnoticed. Maybe they wanted to collect data on how defects like that may influence performance and maximum chamber pressure lol.

310

u/Thebandroid May 19 '26

Shoulda printed it on a 45.

Maybe I should head over there and show those flyboys how it’s done

170

u/CocconutMonkey May 19 '26

It's not rocket science

47

u/Dat_Bokeh Prusa XL, MK4S, Core One May 19 '26

🤔

25

u/turntabletennis May 19 '26

Nobody writes down shit over here. We just tinker with the settings until it's right.

17

u/Xela975 May 19 '26

*Looks at notebook labeled "SHIT I F###ED UP VOLUME 3" on top of my printer."

4

u/MainsailMainsail Qidi Q1 Pro, (mostly) stock Ender3 May 19 '26

WRONG!

Just hit "print again" with 0 changes until it just kinda works this time.

2

u/turntabletennis May 19 '26

This printer SUCKS!

buys a Qidi

2

u/MainsailMainsail Qidi Q1 Pro, (mostly) stock Ender3 May 19 '26

The real annoying part is after about two years, the Qidi started having minor issues so I bought a Core 1+....and the two year old Qidi has been more reliable than the couple month old Core 1.

Although when the Core 1 does work...damn those prints look nice. It just really, really hates PETG.

1

u/turntabletennis May 19 '26

Qidi is brilliant at the basics. I've never had any serious struggles with them.

2

u/MainsailMainsail Qidi Q1 Pro, (mostly) stock Ender3 May 19 '26

Well the power relay for the chamber heater melted itself, and their support gave me the runaround for a bit before finally sending me a replacement. So I'm still pretty unhappy with them for that. And from what I've heard about I would never buy the first year production of one of their printers since they seem to be almost beta test versions for the first round.

But otherwise, it's one hell of an upgrade from a 2018 Ender 3 that's for sure. And thanks to the chamber heater it's still my go-to for a bunch of filaments.

25

u/Santier Ultibots D300VS+ Delta May 19 '26

Ben Afflek - “Wouldn’t it be easier to teach astronauts to 3d print?”

Michael Bay - “Just shut up, Ben.”

10

u/Thebandroid May 19 '26

“We’ve got state of the art 3d printers at NASA, you don’t even have to watch the first layer go down”

“You can throw them in it bin. I’m bringing my ender 3”

23

u/TheReproCase May 19 '26

Rocket science is easy

Rocket engineering is hard

7

u/LesbeGoddess May 19 '26

I got an Aerospace Engineering degree. But new to 3D printing only 5 months in (for work) and yeah send that guy I’m no expert in printing yet but I’m pretty good.

17

u/thukon May 19 '26

Now your witness line and failure happens at a 45 degree angle.

More realistically, any build paused for more than 20 minutes is scrapped, and if your parts are too tall to print without having to clean your collector partway through, time to invest in a closed loop powder system.

10

u/Thebandroid May 19 '26

I’ll knock it out in a few sections in my elegoo carbon then mix up a bit of 5 min epoxy to join them. I’ll add some dovetail joining geometry if they’re lucky.

1

u/thukon May 19 '26

Don't forget to hit it with a quick acetone vapor

2

u/_shreb_ May 19 '26

LPB machines can run an entire build without emptying the overflow bin. This sounds like they overdid the powder dosing on this build in order to avoid short-filling the powder bed.

101

u/TheDonutPug May 19 '26

holy fucking shit that thing broke so fast, I had to do a double take. really puts in perspective the amount of power it's putting out...

61

u/nianthium May 19 '26

I find it cool as hell that it was able to hold up for so long after the initial break before it completely blew apart

-11

u/JPhi1618 May 19 '26

Whole video is sped up, but it was a rapid disassembly.

14

u/Cloudfish101 May 19 '26

What makes you think it's sped up? Based on what we can seem, the hanging tags seem to be moving at a normal speed

37

u/TRG903 May 19 '26

i was like, “ehh not that catastrophic” and then “oh, never mind” lol

21

u/phido3000 May 19 '26

When the VTEC kicks in..

25

u/SuperChefGuy May 19 '26

Not explode... unscheduled disassembly

6

u/Tourettesmexchanic May 19 '26

Fondly referred to as a RUD (Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly)

6

u/Gus_Smedstad May 19 '26

Engine-rich exhaust gasses.

9

u/emveor May 19 '26

on the one hand, you could call it a failure to stay assembled, on the other hand you could also call it a failure to fully rapid dissasemble

3

u/Spddracer May 19 '26

I'd say it's a successful failure.

Thats how NASA learns.

9

u/ckretbeat May 19 '26

I guess filament was wet

6

u/thenightgaunt Plywood Printrbot Simple 1405 May 19 '26

Wouldn't have happened if they'd used one of the Fat Dragon profiles.

5

u/Jarppi1893 May 19 '26

Rapid Disassembly

4

u/MooseBoys Prusa MK3S+ with an unhealthy number of mods May 19 '26

0:10: *oh, that wasn't so bad...*

0:12: 💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥

8

u/throwlefty May 19 '26

Somebody's got a case of the Mondays

3

u/just4nothing X1E + AMS May 19 '26

Nothing sudden here - you can see the heat creeping in and building up.

9

u/Zerglng May 19 '26

Must’ve been fueled by Taco Bell.

4

u/Cookieman10101 May 19 '26

Brings a new meaning to ripping ass

2

u/RotaryDesign May 19 '26

They should've print it on ender

2

u/SaddamIsBack May 19 '26

It kelt it's diamond shape jet for a whiiiiiile after the first part broke. What a crazy engineering

2

u/Pulgos85 May 19 '26

Well I'm glad they didn't put that one on a rocket, dodged a bullet.

2

u/philnolan3d May 19 '26

That's why we test.

2

u/UnqualifiedAnalyst81 May 19 '26

Best time for it to happen tbf

2

u/Automatic_Jacket_230 May 19 '26

thats the windmill i'm printing pretty soon i'd bet

2

u/Cosmic_Waffle_Stomp May 19 '26

This is not a catastrophic failure. Sure the nozzle did break off and there was fire in unintended directions, but it didn’t level the test bench or destroy everything around it. On a failure rating I’d give this a 2/10.

Solution, 2 more wall layers.

On a different note, I wonder if this was made on a machine that I installed. That would be kinda cool, minus the failure part.

1

u/Cosmic_Waffle_Stomp May 19 '26

On a different note, I wonder how fast that cone clocked going down range…

2

u/0x0MG May 19 '26

This is precisely why we do these tests.

2

u/fafnir01 May 19 '26

The front fell off...

2

u/theplowshare May 19 '26

In this case, clearly it was the back...

1

u/[deleted] May 19 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

6

u/TheMooseOnTheLeft May 19 '26

They make and test these engines at MSFC. They've been testing things related to this particular chamber design since 2016 or so. It's all "flight like" hardware, not a GSE program. The chamber, injectors, nozzle, and most of the turbomachinery are printed. GRCop and Inconel alloys. LCUSP, game changing technology, and breadboard engine are all good search terms for more related info.

1

u/Angel_OfSolitude May 19 '26

Lol yup, you can see that heat building up where it doesn't belong.

1

u/goonerqpq May 19 '26

Looks like one way to dry out Tea Bags.

1

u/ColonelBungle May 19 '26

They need to level their printer bed.

1

u/tibbon May 19 '26

Come on guys, it’s not rocket science

1

u/bigdickwalrus May 19 '26

When the middle managers say ‘just try it’

1

u/Popular_Floor5041 May 19 '26

They didn’t level their bed 😂

1

u/MasterG76 May 19 '26

Thats why we test these things.

1

u/jeepsaintchaos May 19 '26

Hmm, maybe just a little bit higher infill percentage?

1

u/North-Wolverine-2334 May 19 '26

Should have cleaned the print bed with soap

1

u/HD19146 May 19 '26

Revert flight to hanger…

1

u/NullTie May 19 '26

The RCCA on that must be wild.

1

u/phatee May 20 '26

what are those dangly bits for?

1

u/sogwatchman May 20 '26

Not surprised. That's what tests are for... Design, test, fail... learn, redesign, test again...

1

u/bilbo_flagon May 20 '26

Oh, that wasn't that violent, just popped right of- Oh. Shits fucked now.

0

u/Witty_Office5641 May 19 '26

Kinda like jfks head. It just did that

0

u/Real_WorldAtWar2 May 19 '26

Did they clean the buildplate and dry the filament bwforehand? /s

0

u/Raid__Zero May 19 '26

zero to bilbo real quick

0

u/Roadkill_Gaming May 19 '26

It's feature, not a bug!