“This process is ideally suited to rocket nozzles, rotating engines, and many other components in the aerospace industry,” Michael Robert Tucker, PhD, a lecturer at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, said. “They typically have a large diameter but very thin walls.”
A team of bachelor students in Switzerland has designed a 3D high-speed multi-material metal printer well suited to rocket nozzles, rotating engines, and other aerospace components have a large diameter but very thin walls, because it uses a rotating laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) system:
Traditional LPBF printers operate in a stop-start fashion by sequentially applying and fusing each layer. In contrast, the team’s innovative solution rotates the printing platform, allowing powder to be deposited and fused continuously.
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This high-speed rotation slashes production time for cylindrical components by more than two-thirds. It can also print with two different metals simultaneously, which current 3D printers can’t achieve without multiple printing stages or complex post-processing.
The student-led project, named RAPTURE, was initially designed to help ARIS (the Swiss Academic Space Initiative) build bi-liquid-fueled rocket nozzles capable of surviving spaceflight conditions.
According to Tucker, what sets the machine apart is its rotating powder delivery and gas flow system, which proved critical to the quality of the printed parts. The mechanism blows inert gas across the fusion zone, preventing oxidation during the printing process.
At the same time, soot, spatter, and other by-products are continuously extracted through a dedicated outlet, ensuring a cleaner build environment and higher part integrity. “At first we underestimated the extent to which the gas flow mechanism affects product quality,” Tucker explained. “Now we know it’s crucial.”