SPEE3D, a worldwide market leader in 3D cold-spray metal printing technology, today announced that SPACE3D – a project within SPEE3D that is focused upon manufacturing parts for the space industry – successfully conducted the first hot fire test of a prototype rocket engine at a test site in Darwin on September 16, 2022.
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The laboratory prototype is the first of a series of rocket engines & components that will be designed, manufactured, and tested over the next 18 months.
The prototype was designed to harness the power of SPEE3D’s cold spray metal printing technology together with other new-to-world manufacturing processes that collectively aim to deliver reusable rocket engines within lead times and costs that are significantly lower than traditional technologies.
Last year, SPEE3D’s SPACE3D project received $1.25m in grant funding from the Australian Government’s Modern Manufacturing Initiative and an additional $312,000 from the Northern Territory Government of Australia. Generous in-kind support from Charles Darwin University and RMIT University is also gratefully acknowledged.Both the Australian and Northern Territory Governments are committed to enabling the SPACE3D project to help revolutionize the space industry while supporting the local economy and jobs in the Northern Territory.
“SPEE3D’s cold spray technology facilitates new ways to design and manufacture demanding space components potentially more rapidly and at lower cost than incumbent technologies.” said Gary Owen, Chief Space Officer for SPEE3D. “Our design, manufacturing and test expertise, once proven by events such as successful rocket engine hot fire tests, will position us well to play an important role in the rapidly expanding space industry.”
“We are thrilled the SPACE3D program is helping to revolutionise the space industry in Australia, and this successful test symbolises a significant step forward,” said Nicole Manison, Minister for Advanced Manufacturing. “By developing the local space industry, we are creating more employment opportunities for innovative Territorians and expanding our advanced manufacturing capabilities. The Territory is the place to do business, we back ambitious projects to create more jobs and a stronger future.”
SPEE3D’s unique, patented technology is 1000 times faster than traditional 3D metal printing, it enables the world’s most affordable additive manufacturing process to produce industrial quality metal parts from anywhere in just minutes. Unlike other large additive manufacturing printers, SPEE3D does not rely on helium or other gasses, and does not require melting of metals to produce parts from over 12 material sets including copper, stainless steel, titanium, high-strength aluminum and nickel-based carbides.
Note the formation of shock diamonds or Mach discs in the exhaust plume that indicates supersonic flow.
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