Fathom is hiring for multiple positions across our 12 nationwide sites! To see all open positions, click here.

logo fathom

Shark Tracking With 3D Printing for Prototyping and Production

Shark Tracking & 3D Printed Devices

MBARI is a nonprofit oceanographic research center located up the coast from the world-famous Monterey Bay Aquarium. In pursuit of solving a decades old mystery of Great White Shark migration patterns, a group of researchers from MBARI approached Fathom recently with prototype and production needs, aiming to create an innovative event-triggered video capture device to be used on sharks off the coast of California. In this featured blog post, learn about how the team at Fathom helped researchers use additive technologies throughout product realization, from prototyping for form, fit and function testing, to taking a tool-less manufacturing approach that significantly lowered overall costs.

  • 3D Printing for Faster and Lower Cost Prototyping
  • Additive Manufacturing as a Cost-Effective Solution for High-Value, Low-Volume Applications
  • Direct Digital Manufacturing Strategy Enabling Production Agility

Recently featured on 3DPrint.com!


MBARI-Blog-(Farallon-Islands)

About the Team at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

Researchers at MBARI have set out to achieve and maintain a position as a world center for advanced research and education in ocean science and technology. Founded by David Packard as an advanced center for ocean research and technology development, using cutting-edge technologies to capture meaningful and measurable results is critical to upholding its mission.

As an early-adopter of 3D printing for research applications, there are many situations for the MBARI team where design freedom is crucial to the function of a part. MBARI often makes manifolds which are difficult or impossible to CNC machine due to long through holes, internal channels and sharp internal corners. 3D printing has enabled MBARI to freely fabricate these types of parts that otherwise would require extensive work holdings or bonding parts together. The MBARI team has also used 3D printing to create molding tools to pour syntactic foam parts, a material often in oceanography because it is very tolerant to pressure and does not change dimension at 1500 PSI.

The Great White Shark Café Challenge

The Great White Shark population endemic to California coastal waters have a consistent yearly migration pattern, traveling from the coast of California to the Hawaiian Islands and back. Each year, the sharks hang out in an underwater region nearly equidistant between their migration points, hundreds and hundreds of miles from the nearest coastline, which has raised many questions from marine biologists and shark experts.

The underwater region, dubbed the Shark Cafe, has been an unsolved mystery because the area is known to be essentially an underwater desert—lacking in the flourishing marine life that typically attracts apex predators like Great Whites. About 900 miles off the coast of Baja California, Mexico, the sharks have displayed interesting behavior at the Shark Cafe, including sessions where they rapidly swim up and down between the surface and about 250 meters with occasional pauses at various depths.

To solve the mystery of this behavior and discover the attraction of the Shark Cafe region, MBARI researchers proposed a tag-and-record approach that would involve constructing a video attachment for each targeted shark (researchers tested a prototype in 2015 of their shark-cam tag on white sharks in South Africa).

For this next concept, every attachment needed to be durable enough to survive up to 10 months in an underwater environment. The video module specifications also included a max depth of 1200 meters and a photo/video depth of up to 200 meters. The housing needed to be durable so researchers could successfully capture up to eight hours of footage using a Great White Shark Behavior detection algorithm to trigger video and high res data sampling.

The Solution

Fathom Account Manager, Chris Lem, worked with the MBARI team throughout product development, advising on the advantages and disadvantages of different 3D printing technologies. For prototyping, the team opted for VeroClear parts using PolyJet Technology, which allowed the researchers and the Fathom production team to iterate and improve the video attachment design with an almost see-through material. Iterating in PolyJet up-front allowed the team to make critical changes and understand the interplay of separate components before committing to a final design. Before completing the initial design, the MBARI team also iterated with Nylon parts using SLS Technology for additional strength-to-weight ratio and durability testing. For producing the final parts to be used for field-testing, 3D printing in engineering-grade plastics using FDM Technology proved to be ideal for MBARIs application because of its high-performance and durability.

3D Printing for Prototype & Additive Manufacturing for Production

  • PolyJet // Material—VeroClear / / Quantity—5
  • SLS // Material—Nylon 12 / / Quantity—5
  • FDM / / Material—ABS on the New Continuous Build 3D Demonstrator / / Quantity—20
MBARI-Blog-(Shark-Cafe)-CAD-Files

By taking a “front-loaded” approach during the prototyping phase—engaging in many iteration cycles—MBARI engineers could increase knowledge and decrease assumptions faster, earlier in the concept development process. After proving out the design, the team chose to take a direct digital manufacturing approach for the production of the final enclosure because using a traditional manufacturing method for only 20 parts would have increased costs by as much as three times. FDM not only met the critical requirements of the application, it proved to be the most cost-effective option with the greatest flexibility—the MBARI team can 3D print on-demand without having to hold inventory or incur additional costs for design changes in future production runs.

To learn more about the migrating shark population near the California coast and the team at MBARI, check out the institute’s website.

Image Credits Include Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.

Comprehensive Capabilities for Rapid Manufacturing

At Fathom we offer a unique advantage of speed and agility-our experts help companies go from concept to prototype to manufacturing in ways not previously possible. 

90+ Machines  
SLS / / Two-day  SLA / / Next-day 
FDM / / Next-day DMLS / / Three-day 
PolyJet / / Same-day MJF / / Two-day
   

Get A Quote

30 Second Quotes
Prototype Tool / / As soon as 10 days
10K Parts / / 10 days
Production Tool / / As soon as 3 weeks
 

Get A Quote

3 & 5 Axis Milling & Turning
(Plastics, Composites and Metals)

Tolerance Accuracy Range
from +/-0.001″ to 0.005″

Get A Quote

Injection Molding Adjacent
without High Costs of Metal Tools

Most Commonly Used for High-Volume
Prototyping & Bridge to Production

Get A Quote

Finishing, Production Painting and Color Matching

Assembling, Including Embedded Electronic
Components, Threaded Inserts, and More

Get A Quote

CAD, DFAM and DFM Services

Apply Methods to Increase Speed
and Decrease Total Cost

Get A Quote

Highly Trained Staff / / Full-Time & Part-Time
Support as Short-Term & Long-Term Strategy

Decrease Downtime with Customizable
Staffing Accelerates Implementation

Get A Quote

Let’s get started.

Fathom is driven by advanced technologies and methods that enhance and accelerate today’s product development and production processes.

GET YOUR 30 SECOND QUOTE

Manufacturing Locations Across National Time Zones
Manufacturing Locations Across National Time Zones
The Fathom Advanced Manufacturing Platform
new map update 3
HEADQUARTERS

1050 Walnut Ridge Drive
Hartland, WI 53029
ISO 9001:2015
AS9100:2016
ITAR

ARIZONA

444 W. 21st St. Ste. 101
Tempe, AZ 85282
ISO 9001:2015
NIST800-171 Compliant
ITAR

COLORADO

7770 Washington St.
Denver, CO 80229
ISO 9001:2015
ITAR

MINNESOTA

13758 Johnson Street NE
Ham Lake, MN 55304

TEXAS

1801 Rowe Lane
Pflugerville, TX 78660
ISO 9001:2015
AS9100:2016

1513 Sam Bass Rd
Round Rock, TX 78681
ISO 9001:2015
ISO 13485:2016

CALIFORNIA

46758 Lakeview Blvd,
Fremont, CA 94538
ISO 9001:2015 Design Certified
NIST 800-171 Compliant
ITAR

FLORIDA

14000 N.W. 58th Court
Miami Lakes, FL 33014

NEW YORK

1920 Slaterville Rd
Ithaca, NY 14850
ITAR

401 W. Shore Blvd.
Newark, NY 14513
AS9100:2016
ISO 9001:2015
ITAR

ILLINOIS

1207 Adams Drive
McHenry, IL 60051
ISO 9001:2015

1401 Brummel Ave
Elk Grove, IL 60007
ISO 9001:2015 Design Certified

fathom yellow color logo