3D Printed Rocket Engine

DMS General
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A friend sent me this link and info on a 3D printed rocket engine by Space X. Thought it might be of interest to our group. http://www.spacex.com/news/2014/07/31/spacex-launches-3d-printed-part-space-creates-printed-engine-chamber-crewed

3D Printed rocket engine w/ 16K lbs of thrust (pick up 4 cars) 8 are on each Dragon 2 Spacex capsule. It’s printed with Inconel metal.

http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/printed_super_draco_3_lr.jpg

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Any idea what the printer was? I didn’t see it in the article.

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Not sure what the exact machine is, but here’s some other items linked belwo. Inconel is a high Nickel based alloy (50%~55% + ~ 17% Chromium) melting temp is around 2600F, Ti is approx. 3000F

GE I know makes numerous jet engine parts out of sintered Ti, specifically a fuel injector system/manifold for the burner cans. The fact they are making rotating parts, turbine blades, in the hot section of the engine is amazing.

One of the great things about this technology is GE predicts it will bring a lot of jobs back to the US because labor will be a minor component of the cost. They went from something like 70+ pieces to a single piece.

Amazing stuff, more to come.
Turbine Blades

Largest 3D part flown

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2:58 in in this video shows it actually getting printed:

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3-d printing of inconel could pay for itself in the automotive world in no time. Right now the best exhaust side turbo equipment is machined from castings, and it’s a real b!tch to cast and to machine from all I hear, making for very short tool life in addition to other diffculties e.g. long lead times. I should think an army of these printers would be coming soon, if the gearheads catch wind of it (given the whole “mass production quantities cause price to plummet” phenomenon we tend to see).

I second Bryan’s “what printer is this”? “In late 2013, SpaceX successfully fired a SuperDraco engine at full thrust using a 3D-printed engine chamber developed entirely in-house.” It’s unclear if the 3-d printing was developed in-house, or the chamber. Since the dev of the chamber seems a given, I suspect the 3-d printing was the subject of this statement. Wonder what that means for the rest of us…

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I’m not sure what make that exact printer is, but Concept Laser is one manufacturer of that type of 3d metal printer. From what understand, there are several manufacturers, but Concept Laser offers the largest bed size.

http://www.concept-laser.de/en/industry/aerospace/machines.html

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The problem for high volume parts is metal sintering 3D is not very fast so you would be a lot of printers which aren’t cheap. They produce near net parts but some machining would still be required, e.g. mating surfaces on the compressor (not the manifold surfaces), final sizing/alignment of holes for bearings, thread clean-up for threaded holes, etc. You are right about Inconel be tough to machine and a printed part would require much less machining.

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