One Key Aspect To Expeditions

When contemplating an expedition of some kind, quite a few logistics must come into place. Water, food, transportation, sleeping, etc. will all be required in this process. Perhaps the team looking into investigating an area or point of interest is doing so not just for the experience, but to collect data or to solve a problem. What I’m saying – maybe the team going into a new area is looking to get something accomplished; they aren’t going on a stroll to see the area, they’re collecting data. In a sense, they’re there for business. It is a professional environment. There are quite a few expeditions like this occurring all the time and I want to mention the use of 3D printing in these expeditions.

Like I mentioned earlier, quite a few logistics must come into play when discussing going on some kind of expedition away from society. 3D printing might be one of the key ingredients to that process, let me explain how. Let’s say that a team is going to explore a trench in the ocean. A vessel will have to carry the team to research this area. Various other devices and equipment will come very handy when graphing the areas, and taking note. Many things such as miniature submarines, robots that “crawl” the sub surface, and other technologies need to work under harsh conditions. What happens when a key part breaks down and stops working? The main seismic technology for recording a section just broke in one spot. Engineers acknowledge that a small piece requires replacement, but they don’t have the equipment to do it themselves.

Without 3D printing, perhaps the team would have to turn around and call the entire journey a bust. Maybe they can come back next time. Perhaps if the financial situation is there, a piece can be helicoptered to that kind of distance, and dropped off. That doesn’t sound free. 3D printing could solve this issue relatively easily – especially if used in conjunction with a 3D scanner. Let’s say that a widget breaks, and it is crucial to the expedition. 3D printing can replicate it! Plain and simple. Not every single situation, but almost all of them will allow for 3D printing to manufacture a small part for a very specific situation. If a 3D scanner were to take the dimensions of the damaged part, it would accelerate the process. A designer or engineer would simply have to draw up the part on the computer and then it would be manufactured. Another interesting idea might involve keeping files of all of the individual parts ready for printing in case something did break down. This would mean that a team on an expedition could break a vital piece to their operation, but would only have to click the print button to fix all of their problems.

This kind of application applies to a wide variety of situations. Like I mentioned earlier, maybe there is research going on in the middle of the ocean. Other research might be going on at the north or south pole. Perhaps a team drilling water wells in Africa could benefit from this. Maybe even space travel might benefit from this? The point is, if a team is working with very specific gear, and something breaks – 3D printing could save the day by manufacturing the piece.