At this year’s Paris Air Show, Oerlikon made its ambitions for additive manufacturing (AM) in aerospace clear: to expand its position as a supplier of serial 3D printed parts for space.
Those ambitions were backed by more than a decade of work with Airbus on the supply of metal printed parts, many of which are already in orbit, and solidified by the signing of a 3.8 million EUR contract for the production of satellite components.
The surface and AM solutions provider is set to work with the aerospace giant to 3D print a series of aluminium antenna clusters, which will form part of communication satellites that will transmit and receive communication and data signals in K-band frequency.
The second order of the week came from ArianeGroup for the production of 3D printed heat exchangers for its new Ariane 6 rocket launcher. The order, worth up to 900,000 EUR, will see Oerlikon produce a set of heat management components for the launcher, which is expected to take off several times a year and play a key role in Europe's space exploration, earth observation, telecommunications, and national security.
Following the news, Dr. Sven Hicken, CTO Surface Solutions Division at Oerlikon spoke to TCT about collaborating with space companies, milestones for additive in aerospace, and ambitions for the sector.
TCT: How did this partnership with Airbus come about?
SH: The partnership with Airbus is based on years of technical collaboration. It started with small research and development projects that ultimately demonstrated the benefits of additive manufacturing. The cooperation then matured in terms of process operations and quality management to achieve flight readiness. While it took time from first engineering sketches to delivering flight hardware, which is where we are today, what I can say is that our transparent and collaborative approach has been key to enabling a successful cooperation. We see this as just the beginning and are grateful to Ariane and our partners for their support. This is a journey where collaboration can result in bidirectional growth and will benefit the whole aerospace supply chain right down to post-processing and testing.
TCT: Prior to this, what was Oerlikon’s experience with delivering AM for space applications?
SH: In 2016-2017, we began a cooperation with Ruag, known today as Beyond Gravity. This was our first step into aerospace for our AM solutions. However, we have long legacy with the industry through our coatings business which has successfully delivered high quality coatings for decades.
TCT: Can you talk about the choice of AM process and material selected and why it was selected for this application?
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SH: For the first serious attempt to print RF parts, we jointly decided with the customer to select materials, machines and processes that were well known and manageable. This is so we could focus on developing and fixing proper controls in situ, which is a must to prove flight readiness in production. As aluminium has good electrical properties and has been used successfully in AM applications for many years, it was agreed that this was the material of choice. Not only is it a good fit for RF parts, it comes with a small and manageable level of risk, which was important considering that we were at innovation stage introducing AM technology for the product.
Airbus 3D printed aluminium antenna cluster
TCT: The heat exchanger design exploits the benefit of additive compared to traditional methods. Can you explain how the design take’s advantage of AM?
SH: It combines the capability to manage dimensional and weight constraints with the possibility to deliver complex functional design of parts in a reasonable lead time. Launchers are complex and therefore AM solutions are preferred choices.
TCT: The heat exchanger sets have been described as ‘explicitly designed for serial production.’ Can you share how that has been achieved and the volumes you expect to be manufacturing in?
SH: It is very difficult to predict the number of likely Ariane launches as they depend on a series of factors not under our control, although it is expected to be in the range of 6 to 8 – possibly even 10 launches per year. It is important to stress that series production for space applications was never meant to be the same as, for instance, series production in the automotive industry. The part was designed to fit an AM machine which is robust. I was also designed to account for post-processing inspections, a prerequisite on flight parts.
TCT: The collaboration with ArianeGroup has been labelled an ‘important milestone’ for Oerlikon as a recognized supplier of AM parts to space companies. Can you elaborate on that?
SH: On our roadmap to partner with the space industry, we have positioned ourselves as a reliable innovator producing increasingly sophisticated additive manufactured components. While antennas and heat exchangers are vital parts of a satellite, they are typically not mission critical. However, in the development of these key components, we were given the unique opportunity to gain further insight into modern-day satellite operations and to also demonstrate our capabilities to produce crucial components. On our journey to create flight-critical parts for the commercial and aerospace industries, we are now at an advanced stage of technical and operational maturity.
TCT: Is there an opportunity to further collaborate on future parts for ArianeGroup? Further to that, what are Oerlikon’s ambitions for this sector in general?
SH: Undoubtedly, there are opportunities to collaborate further with Ariane Group and beyond. We have already embarked on the initial successful steps to develop the most advanced aerospace components via additive manufacturing. Our capabilities and accomplishments are being recognised and we plan to consolidate this position to secure opportunities where and when AM can benefit production.
