From Medieval to 21st Century
The medieval chain mail or chain maille is a coat of armor consisting of small metal rings sewn together tightly forming a mesh. Worn as a garment, it is meant to protect soldiers and combatants from slashing blows by bladed weapons and penetration by thrusting and piercing armory. It could mean the difference between life and death in a battle. It was an extremely prized commodity, expensive and time-consuming to produce.
Mail is still used today as a component of stab-resistant body armour, cut-resistant gloves for butchers and woodworkers, shark-resistant wetsuits for defense against shark bites, and a number of other applications. However, NASA engineers have found a new use for this otherwise medieval coat of arms. With a few upgrades, the modern chain mail will prove useful for astronauts and spacecraft.
At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, the new chain mail is produced not by painstakingly connecting tiny loops of metal, one by one, but by 3D printing. Both sides of the metallic fabric have been engineered for their very specific uses. The top looks like a mosaic of shiny metal tiles reflecting light and serving as a form of passive heat management. The other side looks more like traditional medieval chain mail, can absorb heat instead, like an insulation.
While still experimental, the mail can be used in space suits, on habitats, wrapped around vehicles and spacecraft as protection against unforeseen hazards, or even laid down on alien terrain to provide safe landing for a ship. It can also be used to protect the space shuttle on re-entry, instead of ceramic tiles. Hence, multiple uses await the strong 3D-printed chain mail for NASA’s future space explorations.
3D Printed Aerospace Applications in Seattle
Over at our 3D printing company, Pro 3D Composites, we have been serving the aerospace industry for many years. We keep up with space exploration and help engineers and designers where we can with various applications at our disposal.
