Rainer Groh

Tag: 3D Printing

  • Podcast Ep. #49 – 9T Labs is Producing High-Performance Composite Materials Through 3D Printing

    Martin Eichenhofer is the CEO & co-founder of 9T Labs, a company that was spun out of ETH Zürich in Switzerland. The company specialises in providing software solutions and manufacturing equipment for producing high-quality and high-performance composite materials using 3D printing.

    By marrying the worlds of composite materials and 3D printing, 9T Labs is taking advantage of the superior material properties of composite materials and combining these with the geometric fidelity facilitated by 3D printing. As a result, components that were previously unfeasible to be manufactured using composite materials, either from a technical or cost perspective, are now within the realm of the possible.

    What is unique about 9T Labs is that the company combines their hardware for 3D printing composite parts with a bespoke optimisation software in order to maximise a component’s performance, both in terms of structural design and manufacturing quality. Furthermore, it has been historically difficult to print continuous fibre composites at high quality with a low void content. 9T Labs, however, has patented a process that allows printing at a void content of below 1%, which competes with conventionally manufactured composites.

    In this episode of the Aerospace Engineering Podcast, Martin and I discuss:

    • his background as an engineer and how his PhD research led to 9T Labs
    • the challenges and benefits of 3D printing composite materials
    • 9T Labs’ unique approach to 3D printing composite materials
    • some of the applications the company is currently working on
    • and much, much more.

    Selected Links from the Episode

  • Podcast Ep. #16 – Max Haot and Launcher’s Ten-year Journey to Deliver Small Satellites to Orbit

    On this episode I am speaking to Max Haot, who is the founder of Launcher, a rocket startup based out of Brooklyn, NY. Launcher was founded in early 2017 and is on a ten-year journey to deliver small satellites to orbit. More specifically, Launcher plans to deliver payloads of up to 300 kg into low-earth orbit cheaper than anyone else in the growing small launcher market; a market specialising on small satellites that will deliver GPS, internet services and earth imaging in the near future.

    The most difficult part of launching satellites into orbit is building a robust and reliable rocket engine. On top of that, the physics of the rocket equation dictate very stringent constraints on the mass of the rocket and payload. To launch a satellite into low-earth orbit, a typical liquid-oxygen/kerosene rocket is around 95% propellant on the launchpad. So any fuel savings from a more efficient rocket engine can go towards increasing the payload. Launcher has spent the last year working on their proof-of-concept engine, the E-1, and are now in the process of spending the next three years developing the 40x larger E-2 engine. Key to Launcher’s rocket engine is 3D printing and a staged combustion cycle. 3D printing allows for a reduction in parts, faster development times, and easier manufacturing of complex geometries such as integrated cooling channels, which all help to reduce costs. In a staged combustion cycle, a favourite of Soviet rocket engineers, propellant flows through two combustion chambers, a preburner and a main combustion chamber. The pressure produced by igniting a small amount of propellant in the preburner can be used to power the turbo pumps that force the remaining propellant into the main combustion chamber. The addition of the preburner leads to better fuel efficiency, but comes at the cost of greater engineering complexity.

    One of the things I love about Launcher is that they face this daunting engineering challenge with the utmost humility, documenting many of their failures and successes online for everyone to see. In this way, anyone can get a glimpse of what it means to build a rocket company from scratch. In this episode of the Aerospace Engineering Podcast you will learn:

    • how Max got into the space industry
    • the engineering details behind many aspects of the E-1 engine
    • the advantages of 3D printing and stage combustion
    • and Launcher’s current schedule for developing the full-size E-2 engine

    Selected Links from the Episode

  • Podcast Ep. #13 – Skyrora’s Lead Engineer Robin Hague on Scotland’s New Satellite Launch Capability

    Robin Hague is the Lead Engineer at the rocket startup Skyrora based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The goal of Skyrora is to provide a dedicated launch vehicle for small satellites. It has never been cheaper to build small satellites that provide imaging and communication services, and this sector of the space economy is expected to grow rapidly over the coming years. The UK is a world leader in the small satellite business—with Glasgow in Scotland building more satellites than any other city in Europe—but there is currently a shortfall of dedicated launchers for these satellite companies. Skyrora hopes to serve this market by launching rockets from Norther Scotland, which has great access to polar and sun-synchronous orbits. In this episode of the Aerospace Engineering podcast Robin and I talk about:

    • the history of British rocketry (the Black Arrow)
    • the benefits of using hydrogen peroxide as a propellant
    • the role of 3D printing in modern rocket engines
    • and the future of Skyrora.

    Selected Links from the Episode

  • Podcast Ep. #8 – Rocket Lab’s Lachlan Matchett on Democratising Access to Space and the Rutherford Rocket Engine

    In this episode I am talking to Lachlan Matchett, who is the VP of Propulsion at Rocket Lab. Rocket Lab is a startup rocket company with the mission of removing barriers to commercial space by frequent launches to low-earth orbit. The current conundrum of many space technology companies that want to launch small satellites into space is that there is no dedicated launch service tailored to their needs. This is where Rocket Lab enters the picture. To provide small payloads with a flexible and dedicated launch vehicle, Rocket Lab has developed the Electron rocket. The Electron is a two-stage rocket that can be tailored to unique orbital requirements and provides frequent flight opportunities at personalised schedules.

    In terms of the engineering, there are many interesting features to the Electron rocket, but one of the key innovations is the Rutherford engine that Lachlan Matchett and his team have developed over the last five years. Rutherford is the first oxygen/kerosene-powered engine to use 3D printing for all primary components. In fact, the Rutherford engine can be printed in an astounding 24 hrs, and this is one of the driving factors behind Rocket Lab’s cost efficiency and high target launch frequency. So in this episode, Lachlan and I talk about:

    • Rocket Lab’s business model
    • their recent launch success in Jan 2018
    • some of the engineering highlights of the Rutherford engine
    • and Rocket Lab’s plans for the future

    Selected Links from the Episode