Additive manufacturing is becoming an increasingly common way to produce parts in the space industry. It allows the designer to create more complex geometries than those possible with traditional machining, and beyond that, it enables a faster production rate and reduces costs. At Virgin Orbit, a number of different additive manufacturing techniques are currently being deployed to develop and test new components.
In this presentation, first shown during the TCT Conference @ Formnext Connect, Dayle Alexander, Propulsion Development Engineer and Oluseun Taiwo, Engineer, Propulsion Advanced Development/Additive Manufacturing at Virgin Orbit discuss the utilisation of metal powder bed fusion to build intricate details and cooling channels into thrust chambers and injectors, while also working with a hybrid direct energy deposition process for outer structural jackets and cladding on combustion chambers.
Of the company’s additive activity, Taiwo, said: “Additive manufacturing actually allows us to increase performance of the components propulsion-wise and structurally on our vehicle while decreasing cost, lead-time, complexity and part count.”
Watch the presentation on-demand here.
Get more from the TCT Conference @ Formnext On Demand here.
