1. Definition of additive manufacturing<\/p>\n
Additive manufacturing, also commonly known as 3D printing, builds three-dimensional objects by stacking or adding material layer by layer, rather than cutting or removing material from a block to obtain the desired shape. \u200cThe core concept of additive manufacturing is to create physical parts by “adding rather than removing” material, which is a “bottom-up” manufacturing method.<\/p>\n
2. Advantages of additive manufacturing<\/p>\n
Additive manufacturing gets rid of the mold manufacturing process in the production of aerospace products and can quickly manufacture parts with very complex structures.<\/p>\n
(1) Improve material utilization and reduce production costs<\/p>\n
Due to the high requirements for performance and reliability, aerospace products require a large amount of materials such as titanium alloys and nickel-based alloys. Although these materials have high performance, they are expensive and difficult to process. Although a large number of such materials are used in aerospace products, the utilization rate of materials is very low, generally as low as 10%, and even as low as 2%-5%. If the traditional processing mode is adopted, a large amount of expensive metal materials will become scraps that are difficult to reuse, and the sunk cost will be huge. If 3D printing is used, the utilization rate of materials can be significantly improved and the amount of mechanical processing can be reduced.<\/p>\n
(2) Reduce the weight of structural components and reduce production costs<\/p>\n
For aerospace products, weight is a very critical element. If structural components can be reduced in weight, more payload can be transported. Since the birth of the aerospace industry, reducing structural weight has been a technical requirement that scientific researchers have been constantly striving for. With the continuous development of aerospace technology, there is less and less space to reduce the weight of structural components through traditional technological improvements. Additive manufacturing can take advantage of its own technical characteristics to significantly reduce the weight of structural components through optimized structural design while achieving the same performance.<\/p>\n
3. Some current applications of additive manufacturing in the aerospace field<\/p>\n
(1) Domestic<\/p>\n
1. Within the system<\/p>\n
The successful first flight of the Long March 5B launch vehicle included a fully 3D printed core-level bundled support. The heat-proof bottom frame of the return capsule of the new generation manned spacecraft test ship uses laser deposition 3D printing technology. The tank structure of the “Queqiao-2” satellite is 3D printed.<\/p>\n
2.Private enterprises<\/p>\n
The “Border” orbit attitude control power system of Galaxy Power’s “Ceres 1” launch vehicle uses 3D printing technology for the assembly ring, which greatly simplifies the pipeline interface and optimizes the machining process. Blue Arrow Aerospace\u2019s Zhuque 2 and Zhuque 3 rockets are equipped with 3D printed stainless steel and high-temperature alloy parts. In Interstellar Glory\u2019s Hyperbolic II demonstration rocket, the tee and injector are manufactured through 3D printing technology. The Lingkong Tianxing “TXI” series rockets use 3D printing technology, and Brilliant is responsible for the relevant printing work, including the rocket’s electronic control cabin, electrical cabin and tail section shell parts.<\/p>\n
(2) International<\/p>\n
1.Relativity Space Company<\/p>\n
Relativity Space calls the Terran R rocket it developed the world’s first rocket entirely made of 3D printing. The Terran R rocket is 66 meters high and 4.9 meters in diameter. The first and second stages of the rocket are both made of 3D printing. The thrust of the first stage engine is close to 137 tons. Relativity Space has subverted the rocket development method by using 3D printing technology, significantly reducing the number of parts of the Terran R rocket and innovating the public’s understanding of rocket development.<\/p>\n
2. SpaceX<\/p>\n
In the Dragon spacecraft developed by SpaceX, the combustion chamber and injector of the SuperDraco engine are made by 3D printing nickel-based high-temperature alloy and then connected by laser welding. In addition, the shell, flange, etc. have also undergone additive optimization design, which saves tooling costs and speeds up the product development cycle.<\/p>\n
4. Related companies<\/p>\n
Platinum, Hebei Jingye, Falcon, Huashu Hi-Tech, etc.<\/p>\n
5. Personal thoughts<\/p>\n
At present, all rocket companies are using additive manufacturing to develop some components, but the volume is still relatively small. On the one hand, it is because it is still in the early stage of the industry. Most companies do not have mass production capabilities and are still in the research and development stage. As far as the supply chain is concerned, the supply chain construction of Tianbing and Lanjian can be considered to have some small achievements. The construction of the liquid rocket supply chain of other companies is still in its infancy. During the period, Tianbing was significantly slower due to problems with the Gongyi test bench, and Blue Arrow due to model issues, currently has not yet developed a mature model that can be used to undertake the tasks of Starnet and Yuanxin, so the domestic volume of additive manufacturing has not yet increased. When these companies pass the development stage and start to fight for the supply chain, there will be an explosion of additive manufacturing. The other is the impact of the construction of Hainan Shangfa Station on additive manufacturing. It seems that the two are not related, but in fact it will have a big impact. Currently, these commercial aerospace companies are all located in Wenchang, shortening the radius of future industries, and Wenchang is a place with basically no industrial industry foundation. In the future, when the frequency of space launches increases and the reusable rockets are recovered, some machining links may be replaced by additive manufacturing. At this time, the application of additive manufacturing in the aerospace field will be greater.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
1. Definition of additive manufacturing Additive manufacturing, also commonly known as 3D printing, builds three-dimensional objects by stacking or adding material layer by layer, rather than cutting or removing material from a block to obtain the desired shape. \u200cThe core concept of additive manufacturing is to create physical parts by “adding rather than removing” material, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25385"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25385\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}