NASA Funds Chemical Engineering Professor’s 3D Printed High Temperature Sensor Research

NASA Marshall has granted an award to the Chemical Engineering Program to produce 3D printed high-temperature sensors. In collaboration with NASA’s Goddard and Marshall Space Flight Centers, Dr. Pedro Cortes’ team is working on ceramic materials (using a new Digital Light Processing printer unit funded by the Air Force) that can be used in extremely high temperature conditions.

Current temperature sensors are bulky and require special accommodation and design, whereas 3D printed sensors are not separate but actually part of the whole item and, since embedded, do not disrupt the configuration of the manufactured part. Embedded 3D printed sensors will have the capacity to be placed throughout the assembly, giving the ability to more fully monitor the structure.

In conjunction with MIT Lincoln Laboratory (MITLL), students Eleonor Rogenski, Victoria Adams and Robert Zublena are integrating metals that can withstand high temperatures, such as Tungsten alloys, into the printed ceramic structures to develop the sensing elements. The team’s efforts will result in customized temperature sensors capable of being integrated in aerospace engines, airplane turbines and chemical reactors. YSU, the University of Texas El Paso (UTEP), and MITLL have just been invited to participate on a “Resilient and Survivable Hybrid Electronics” book effort led by the Air Force Research Lab (Resilient Hybrid Additive Development Laboratory) at the Eglin Air Force Base, FL.