NASA Tests Limits of 3-D Printing

By: Zain Nabi  |   September 2nd, 2013   |   News

NASA on August 22 tested the limits of 3-D printing with powerful rocket engine check that has generated a significant record thrust of 20,000 pounds. The test acts as a milestone for a number of important advances the agency is making in order to reduce the hardware space cost. Additive manufacturing, or 3-D printing, is some of the most essential innovations that can promote the new and cost-effective alternatives in the space industry of the United States.

 

“This successful test of a 3-D printed rocket injector brings NASA significantly closer to proving this innovative technology can be used to reduce the cost of flight hardware,” said Chris Singer, director of the Engineering Directorate at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville Ala.

 

“This entire effort helped us learn what it takes to build larger 3-D parts — from design, to manufacturing, to testing,” said Greg Barnett, lead engineer for the project. “This technology can be applied to any of the SLS’s engines, or to rocket components being built by private industry.”

 

A component “injector” is tested during the engine firing that is used to start the engine and also supply the thrust essential to send rockets to space. During the test, liquid oxygen and gaseous hydrogen is released to pass through the component into a fire chamber and produce the thrust that is 10 times more than that of the injector previously fabricated by using 3-D printing. The selective layer melting process is used to manufacture the injector. In this process the layers of nickel-chromium alloy powder is formed with 28 different channels into a complex injector. The size is similar small rocket injectors and the design is similar to that of the injectors of Space Launch System (SLS).

 

Up to 1400 pounds pressure per square inch in a vacuum with nearly 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit is used to conduct the injector test. The injector in this test needs to perform perfectly. Each and every detail of the injector test is available to the vendors by NASA through the database of Materials and Processes Information System, which is run and controlled by Marshall’s materials and processes lab.