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Airbus and the Realization of Bionic Design

Five years ago, no one could have predicted the impact that slime mold would have on the air travel industry. This was when the idea for a bionic-design partition for Airbus first came to the forefront. Engineering designers at Airbus took advantage of 3D printing and generative design software to create the bionic partition for its Concept Cabin. The partition is the only thing that separates passengers from the flight crew. Airbus’ new lightweight design allows greater access for emergency personnel to bring in stretchers. The ability to neatly tuck the partition out of the way means that medics can get sick or injured people off the plane in a hurry. At a weight of 66 pounds, the partition serves as a fold-down chair for the flight crew during take-offs and landings. As impressive as all of this is, what has truly caught the attention of the flying public is the fact that the entire partition is made of slime mold. This enables it to be 45 percent lighter than the typical airplane partition. The Power of Generative Design and Additive Manufacturing The Airbus project combines generative design and additive manufacturing to showcase the bionic design of the partition. This…

Are we bionic?

Bionic refers to applying biological ways and systems seen in nature to design and study the engineering systems. A bionic human would refer to human whose worn out parts can be repaired and refitted into the body. We cannot say that the whole of the human body is replaceable, but most parts can find replacements. There are replacements for human bones, teeth, vertebral discs. All these can be designed as per persons size and age. The tailored pants can be drawn in a few hours in a 3D printer to fit into the damaged parts. A device can even print a bone using a porous polymer that looks very real. The artificial bones may not be perfect and same as the natural bones. To give strength, we can add titanium powder with a laser. This would create pores on the bones, and the pores would be of different size and depth, making it look more natural, and these pores give strength and stiffness to the artificial bones. There are ways even to improve implants enabling tissues and bones to regenerate. There are lab results showing cartilage growth through artificial ways in labs. By such a process even damages such as…