Additive Manufacturing for Space Applications: On Earth

ESA UNCLASSIFIED - For Official Use

Additive Manufacturing for Space Applications: On Earth, On Orbit and On Planet

Andrew Norman

A.D. Brandão, J. Gumpinger, B. Bonvoisin, A. Makaya, L. Pambaguian, T. Rohr, T. Ghidini

European Space Agency, Materials and Processes Section Noordwijk, The Netherlands

Engineering Integrity Society, MTC, 18 June 2019

ESA UNCLASSIFIED - For Official Use Ana Brandao | 09/05/2018 | Slide 2

Outline

Introduction to the European Space Agency

Why Additive Manufacturing for Space Applications

Manufacturing on Earth (The ESA Journey)

End-to-End Manufacturing Process

Additive manufacturing on orbit and on planet

Conclusions

Andrew Norman | 18/06/2019


European Space Agency Today

Over 50 years of experience

22 Member States

Eight sites/facilities in Europe, about 2300 staff

5.6 billion Euro budget (2018)

ESA is a procurement agency

Over 80 satellites designed, tested and operated in flight

February 2018



ESA Locations

Washington

Houston

Kourou

Maspalomas

Santa Maria

New Norcia

Perth

Moscow

Oberpfaffenhofen

ESOC (Darmstadt)

EAC (Cologne)

Salmijaervi (Kiruna)

ESTEC (Noordwijk)ECSAT (Harwell)

Toulouse

Brussels

ESA HQ (Paris)

Redu

MalargüeESA sites

OfficesESA Ground Station

ESA Ground Station + Offices

ESA sites + ESA Ground Station

www.esa.int



European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC)

Materials support to the missions

Run technology programmes

Testing / Evaluation Facilities

State-of-the-art laboratories

Equipment dedicated to space

Access to external test houses

Materials level

Component level

Spacecraft / Satellite level



Early Design Phases

Materials and Processes/Failure Investigation

Flight Acceptance/Operations

Full Scale Testing Support

Design for Demise

Vibro-Acoustic Environment Prediction/Launcher Coupled-Multibody Analysis

Detailed Stress Analysis

Materials, Structures and Mechanisms



Surviving in Space

Ground Storage / Launch Phase

Stress corrosion cracking

Red plague corrosion

Vibration and Shock

Zero Gravity

Telecom ~ 75,000 thermal cycles

CTE Mismatch

Expulsion of volatiles (Cd /Zn)

Cold Welding

Outgassing of volatiles

+150˚C-150˚C

Thermal Environment / Vacuum

Radiation / Charged Particles

Ultraviolet Rays High Energy Electrons

Solar Protons Atomic Oxygen

e

o

Space Debris / Demisability

Dust, Micrometeoroids

Asteroids and Comets

Space Junk

Controlled Break-up / Demisable


Why adopt Additive Manufacturing for Space Applications ?


Why Additive Manufacturing for Space hardware?

o Challenges for Space Materials and Processes:

o Why Additive Manufacturing ?

ALM addresses majority of above challenges

Applied to many materials => metals, polymers, composites, ceramics

Dimensions: few micrometers to meters

Significant gains in performances

Environmentally friendly

Low Mass

Small Production Series

Very High Reliability

Small Geometries

Very High Performances

Challenging Material Procurement



ESA Approach to Additive Manufacturing

Funded a number of activities across Europe

Fundamental Studies

Manufacture of Demonstrator Parts

End-to-end process (including qualification and standardization)

Simple part reproduction

Rethinking Processand materials selection

Designing forAdditive Manufacturing



Designing for AM(Alloy design)

Designing for AM (topology / properties)

Starting to Design for AM

Re-thinking Materials Selection

Simple reproduction of existing parts

How it all started at ESA

Failure in a Water On/Off Valve on the ISS

Unit was returned to ESTEC for root cause analysis

Complex design

Thick and thin wall

Welded parts

Would it be possible to manufacture the part as a single piece using the new technology of 3D printing ??



How it all started at ESA

Simple reproduction of the same part

substituted stainless steel by titanium

Ti6Al4V powder available at manufacturer

40% mass benefits

Part count reduction to 1As built part








ESA Funded Activities in Europe

46 Activities to date

16 Countries

18 targeted at TRL = 1-324 targeted at TRL = 3-6

Co-funded 4 PhD Studies

Total = 25.1 MEuros



ESA Funded Activities in Europe

Improved understanding of the End-to-End manufacturing process

Experience in a wide range of techniques and materials

Manufacture and test a number of demonstrator parts

Developing a property database (static and dynamic)

Developing a company database (Europe wide)

Developing a defect catalogue

Create appropriate standards (qualification)



Injectors

Mirrors

Mirrors

Chambers

Bellows

Examples of Manufactured Parts

Wave Guides

ThrustersBrackets

Optical Bench

Brackets

NozzlesBracketsBolts

Flex-Pivots

CoilsBrackets

Tank Hemispheres





Mirror for the Tropomi Instrument (Sentinel 5)Designing for AM

(Alloy design)Designing for AM (topology / properties)


Pair of aluminium mirrors set up to form an optical cavity.

Printed in Ti6Al4V using SLM

Requirement of same final coating and optical performance)

Original design

Material: AA6061

Mass = 284.6g

NiP coating

New design

Material: Ti-6Al-4V

Mass = 127.7g

NiP coating

56% Mass Saving




Single Part Wave GuidesRe-thinking Materials Selection




Radio Frequency

3D print it in a single piece

Reduce misalignments and errorsare removed



ISCAR Secondary Bracket for Ariane 5 ECARe-thinking Materials Selection





Part of the Future Launchers Preparatory Programme (FLPP)

Critical secondary structure on the Ariane 5 ECA

Preparation of Bracket qualification for serial production

In flight demonstration on A5 (Pilot) Maturation for A6



Reaction Wheel Bracket for Exomars TGORe-thinking Materials Selection





Trace Gas Orbiter



Reaction Wheel Bracket for Exomars TGORe-thinking Materials Selection





Conventional AM Saving

Weight 1114g 456g 60%

Buy-to-Fly Ratio 56kg 0.84kg 97%

Costs €8000 €3800 53%

Lead Time Weeks Days



Bellows (Going Small)Re-thinking Materials Selection





Failures occurred on welded Ti64 bellows

Artes 5.1 activity to investigate a potentially more reliable and cost effectivemanufacturing process => AM

Characterizing the performance and the reliability of the bellows



Athena Optical Bench (Going Large)Re-thinking Materials Selection





3m diameter optical bench

Ti-6Al-4V Elevated cell structure with 20 rows

1062 mirror module pockets

Prohibitive cost of conventional manufacturing (forging + machining)



Alloy DesignRe-thinking Materials Selection





Current aluminium alloys limited to Al-Si(Mg) or SCAMALLOY

Need to develop new alloys which can take advantage of AM

Modification of conventional alloys: AA7075+X

New alloys based on Al-Cu and/or Al-Zn

Metallic Glasses / Bulk metallic glass

Alloys with unusual crystallographic structures

High entropy alloys

Shape memory alloys



End-to-End Manufacturing


Qualification

Optimisation

Orientation

Support Structure

Software Tools

Simulation

Supply Chain

Quality

reproducibility

Handling

Recycling

Scan strategy

Power / Speed

Atmosphere

Position

No Parts

Heat Treatment

Surface Treatment

Cleaning

Hipping

SCC Performance

Standards

Tensile / Fatigue

NDI

Post ProcessingProcessingMaterial SupplyDesign

End-to-End Additive Manufacturing



Remaining Challenges for Earth Manufacturing

Set up robust, repeatable AM end to end process

Powder feedstock control

SCC

Cleanliness

Residual stresses

Effects of defects

Combination and interaction of these within the design process

Standardisation tries to tackle these challenges



Additive Manufacturing: In Orbit and On Planet


Additive Manufacturing in Orbit

On demand production of spare parts

CAD files can be stored on Earth, information sent remotely.

Already a Fused Deposition Printer on the ISS

Wire fed metal printer for 2020



Additive Manufacturing in Orbit

Use of 3D bio-printing to support medical treatment of long-duration space expeditions and planetary settlements.



Challenges for AM in orbit

• Micro gravity

• Offgassing

• Particle release (powders wires)

• Limited power availability

• Metals

• Post processing

• Recyclability



Additive Manufacturing on Planet

Using a Mg-based Binder (D-Shape process)

Remote 3D printers using regolith (1.5 ton demonstrator manufactured)

Validate the concept by producing a representative section of the lunar base.



Additive Manufacturing on Planet

Process to lunar regolith using only concentrated solar energy, without involving any binder

Feasibility demonstrator



Science Museum Display

Could we 3D-Print habitats on the moon

On display until October 2019



Challenges for AM on planet

• Wide variations of feedstock (composition, grain size)

• Limited availability of power

• Testing in representative conditions (vacuum, temperature, reduced gravity, dust, radiation) is more challenging



Future Challenges on Earth

Functionally Graded Material4D Printing Advanced Alloy Design (Al, Ti)

In-line process monitoring

End-to-end process control

Repair strategies / NDI

Alternative AM Processes

Ultrasonic Bonding

Cold Spray

Hybrid 3D Printing

Joining Technologies

Additive to Additive

Additive to Non-additive

Metals to non-metals


ESA UNCLASSIFIED - For Official Use

Thank you for attention

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www.esa.int

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Additive Manufacturing for Space Applications: On Earth