Raytheon’s Additive Manufacturing (3D printing) Lab produces thousands of parts each year of varying materials and sizes. The company’s printers use various filaments with a wide range of preferred temperature/humidity conditions. Having the ability to effectively store these materials, control temperature and humidity, and quickly prep multiple different filament types means reducing waste and improving lead times for customer prints.

The team designed and built a multi-compartment temperature/humidity chamber that can accommodate these different filament types. A low humidity and warm temperature environment is ideal for effective printing. The team also found that spending time to preheat the material can slow down projects and lead times, and damaged filament can ruin a print or the printer.

The controlled environment of the team’s chamber can store various filament types and ensure material integrity by protecting against moisture absorption and temperature fluctuations. The system includes integrated heating, dehumidification and air circulation components to provide precise environmental control within a defined temperature range and humidity levels. The unit is also durable, mobile and optimized for use in a fabrication shop environment with a focus on long-term reliability and energy efficiency.

Fiber-coupled laser diodes are part of many defense and commercial applications. Users must properly test these lasers, but that can be expensive and pose risks to the testers. The team developed an enclosed, automated station for testing fiber-coupled laser diodes. This will significantly reduce manual testing time while prioritizing safety.

Since this setup uses powerful Class 4 lasers, the team enclosed it and included an emergency power-off circuit to ensure safe operation. An automated fiber-alignment system provides precise fiber positioning, while integrated cooling and vibration isolation maintain stable operating conditions. The cooling system features closed loops for the aperture, screen, device under test carrier, and laser diode driver for efficient thermal management. Operators can control the system with a programmable logic controller to collect data on electrical inputs, cooling performance and optical outputs. This includes power measurements with and without cladding light blocked by an aperture. The system also measures the laser’s far-field pattern and spectrum using an off-axis camera and spectrometer.

This test station ensures that laser measurements meet specified criteria and automatically assigns a pass or fail based on predefined thresholds. By automating data collection and analysis, this system streamlines testing, improves accuracy, and guarantees repeatable results for high-power laser diode characterization, all within a safe and controlled environment.

Urinary catheters are essential medical devices, but they are prone to causing pain, inflammation and infection. To address these challenges, the team developed an improved, patient-friendly urinary drainage catheter system. The team’s design integrates advanced biomaterials, localized drug delivery, and real-time health monitoring. This system will reduce medical morbidity and mortality in patients who need these catheters.

The team began by identifying the limitations of current Foley catheters. They determined the importance of including a way to administer analgesic, anti-inflammatory and anti-infective agents, as well as the need to monitor patient vitals through the device. The resulting design features a three-way lumen catheter made of medical-grade silicone. It incorporates a polymer dip-coating that allows medical professionals to administer a controlled release of ibuprofen and dexamethasone to reduce pain and inflammation.

A solenoid-generated electromagnetic field (EMF) also inhibits bacterial biofilm formation. Integrated temperature and pH sensors continuously monitor patient health and wirelessly transmit the data to the system. This enables health care providers to track patient health and system functions – including anti-inflammation release, temperature, pH and time and application of EMF – remotely on a mobile application.

The team created the Automated Weight-Bearing 3D Ultrasound Foot Scanner. It is a novel diagnostic tool designed to be used in a clinical setting to measure the stiffness of arch-supporting structures in a weight-bearing position. This system integrates SWE and brightness mode imaging to provide a precise, real-time assessment of plantar ligament stiffness. Using this system, a clinician can accurately detect early signs of arch collapse.

The team’s engineering efforts focused on refining the mechanical structures of the device for improved patient adjustability, developing advanced data acquisition and processing software, and enhancing the graphical user interface for real-time visualization. The final design features an automated ultrasound probe positioning system, pressure sensors for load distribution feedback, and a compact, user-friendly platform that can accommodate various foot sizes and patient weights. The team’s testing confirmed that the system has a ±5% accuracy in stiffness measurements. This is sufficient accuracy to improve preventative care in podiatry and orthopedic clinics. This scanner also standardizes foot stiffness assessments, which gives clinicians an efficient, reliable and noninvasive diagnostic tool for enhancing
patient outcomes.

Industrial HP-MJF 3D printers are revolutionizing manufacturing, but they produce excess PA12 glass-nylon powder as a byproduct of the printing process. The current method for recycling this powder is to manually transfer it between barrels using a scoop. This requires extra labor and produces undesirable airborne particulates. To improve efficiency and workplace safety, the team created a material conveyance system that automates the recycling process by transporting, mixing and extruding PA12 powder into reusable 3D printing filament.

The team’s system consists of three primary subsystems: a cyclone-based transport system, a rotary mixing subsystem and a hopper-fed extrusion assembly. The transport system moves powder from a bulk storage barrel to the mixing chamber. Here, controlled rotation incorporates additives for color and stability. Next, the mixed powder is fed into a filament extruder via a hopper assembly. Users can control powder transfer and mixing parameters via a touchscreen interface. The system also automatically logs operational data for tracking and optimization. This system promotes material reuse, reduces manual handling, and provides a safer and more consistent method for producing recycled filament.

ASML US, Inc. is the world’s only supplier of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines, which are crucial for manufacturing the most advanced semiconductor chips. Contaminants that may end up in the system can lead to extended downtime and costly repairs.

As an example, contaminants may arise during the vaporization of tin particles. ASML US, Inc. uses these particles in its laser produced plasma (LPP) EUV lithography tools. A powerful carbon dioxide laser needs to strike the particles at just the right time to produce the EUV light.

This project focused on designing, building and testing an optical metrology module that measures the size, velocity, and particle trajectory of glass soda-lime microspheres with diameters smaller than 500 μm. It used commercial off-the-shelf components supplemented by 3D-printed or locally machined parts. The system comprises a flow control unit, light source, and detector, all housed within a cube no larger than 3 feet per side, with supporting circuitry and display components mounted externally. The metrology module can detect and track particles similar to the ones ASML uses in its LLP EUV lithography processes. The team evaluated the system through iterative testing and collaboration with ASML and demonstrated that the system improved the detection and positioning of microspheres that
are critical for the operation of the LPP EUV tools.

Demand for primary health care is increasing as the population ages. Fewer medical doctors are available per patient, and the extensive manual data entry required by current electronic health record systems results in less time for meaningful patient interactions. Since a diagnosis is often determined by careful observation of verbal and nonverbal cues, these shorter appointment times can result in missed diagnoses. Therefore, a system that automates observation and documentation to enhance
diagnostic accuracy and improve clinical efficiency provides value.

The team’s solution to this problem is a portable kit equipped to capture and record both visual and auditory data. Integrated software processes the data and provides suggestions for diagnosis. To do this, the audio analysis system first distinguishes speech between the clinician and patient, analyzes speech for diagnostic clues, and assesses the patient’s emotions based on verbal cues. Next, facial analysis detects any abnormalities in facial structure and determines the patient’s predominant emotions throughout a visit. Finally, the motion analysis takes in video of the patient’s movement during the visit and analyzes their gait, speed and sit-to-stand values. After recording and analysis, the system transfers the data into a final report with a summary of findings. The kit can accomplish this during the patient’s visit, allowing the physician to take this information into account while forming a diagnosis.

Water pollutants – including heavy metals, inorganic contaminants, and microplastics – pose significant risks to both the environment and public health. A system for monitoring these “water baddies” is a necessary part of understanding this contamination and taking steps to correct it. Unfortunately, traditional water testing methods rely on laboratory-based analysis, which is expensive, time-intensive and often inaccessible to the general public. This project introduces a functional, small footprint/point-of care analysis system for detecting these water baddies to ensure clean water for a safe future.

The team used a colorimetric and fluorescence-based approach for rapid, on-site water monitoring in an easy-to-use desktop clinical device. The result is a novel paperfluidic device that uses commercial test strips to detect heavy metals and inorganic contaminants and fluorescent microscopy – using a digital microscope, blue LED, and a 520 nm bandpass filter – to identify microplastics. The system employs a dropper mechanism and conveyor belt to deliver samples precisely to detection zones. Results are captured via imaging, analyzed through software, and accessible via a Bluetooth-enabled mobile app. Through experimental calibration, the team determined that the device can successfully detect contaminants well below the limit of EPA National Primary Drinking Water Regulations.

The range and payload capacity of current UAVs are constrained by battery energy density limitations. This project addresses this challenge by building and testing a scalable hybrid-electric system that combines a combustion engine with electric propulsion to achieve the power-to-weight ratio required for cargo missions. The team began by simulating the powertrain in MATLAB Simulink to evaluate performance under flight conditions. Although the test system was not flyable, it was designed to scale to a UAV with a 2,200 lb. gross takeoff weight including a 1,000 lb. payload capacity with a two-hour runtime.

The team delivered two main components: a tabletop powertrain and a Simulink simulation. The powertrain is hybrid-electric with a complex data acquisition system connected to the powertrain that monitors diagnostics in real time. The simulation allows a user to customize the powertrain configurations and analyze performance over various flight profiles. Key subsystems include the power distribution system for efficient power management and the data acquisition system for user control and data collection. This proof-of-concept demonstrates the feasibility of hybrid-electric systems for heavy-lift UAVs and paves the way for future development.

The RDRE is an innovative approach to propulsion with the potential to be 25% more efficient than conventional rocket engines. This project will leverage this technology to reduce cost and improve sustainability. Conventional rocket engines use subsonic combustion – the same process as a car engine – while RDREs use supersonic combustion, also known as detonation. The key component of the RDRE is an annular combustion chamber where a detonation wave continuously propagates at supersonic speeds to efficiently burn the injected propellant.

The team designed, simulated, fabricated and tested a prototype RDRE. The focus was optimizing the detonation wave dynamics and ensuring the structural integrity of the engine under operating conditions. The team’s RDRE uses an injector plate designed to mix liquid propellants and ensure stable detonation in the combustion chamber. A deflagration-to-detonation transition tube starts a detonation wave which continuously travels around the chamber. The engine also features an aerospike nozzle to generate optimal thrust at various altitudes. The team’s tests demonstrated detonation-based propulsion’s potential to advance rocket technology, and the project has real-world applications in space exploration and defense.