Zero-Gravity 3D Printer: In-Space Additive Manufacturing

Print Parameters

Nozzle temperature 240°C

Print speed 40 mm/s

Layer height 0.25 mm

Chamber temperature 35°C

Live Readouts

Layer

0 / 0

Avg. interlayer bond strength

Extrusion width

0.00 mm

Est. print time

0:00

How it works

The nozzle deposits a continuous molten bead along a spiral "vase mode" toolpath that traces a bracket profile whose radius varies with height. Two real relationships from fused-deposition-modeling engineering drive the model:

Extrusion width:  w = Q / (v_p · h)
Interlayer cooling (Newton's law):
  T(Δt) = T_amb + (T_nozzle − T_amb) · e^(−k·Δt)
  Δt = perimeter(h) / v_p
Bond strength:  B = clamp[(T(Δt) − T_g) / (T_nozzle − T_g), 0, 1]

Q — a fixed volumetric feed rate; a slower print speed v_p or thinner layer h forces the bead to spread wider to conserve volume.
Δt — the time the print head takes to complete one full revolution of the ring before it lays the next layer on top of the previous one; a wider ring (larger radius) takes longer, so it cools more before being re-covered.
Cooling constant k is deliberately set lower than a terrestrial FDM printer's: in microgravity there is no buoyancy-driven natural convection, so heat can only leave the bead by conduction and radiation — cooling is genuinely slower off-Earth, one of the real reasons in-space printers (like the ISS's Additive Manufacturing Facility) can sometimes achieve stronger interlayer fusion than ground-printed parts of the same geometry.
T_g is the glass-transition threshold below which polymer chains at the interface can no longer diffuse across the layer boundary — if the surface has cooled past it before the next bead lands, the bond stays weak no matter how hot the new bead is.

Raise nozzle temperature or chamber temperature, or slow the print down, and the bond-strength bar climbs toward 100% — but a hotter, slower print also takes longer, shown live in the estimated print time.

Strong interlayer bond Weak interlayer bond Print head

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