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Chennai-based non-public area startup AgniKul Cosmos has arrange what it calls India’s first non-public giant format additive manufacturing (LFAM) facility for aerospace and rocket techniques on the IIT Madras Analysis Park in Chennai.
The brand new web site builds on the corporate’s earlier effort in 2022, when it opened Rocket Manufacturing unit-1, described on the time as India’s first devoted facility for 3D printed rocket engines. Whereas that facility targeted on producing smaller engines comparable to Agnilet, the most recent centre is supplied to deal with a lot bigger elements and a wider set of producing duties.
The power combines design, printing, put up processing and testing in a single location. It could 3D print components as much as a metre in peak, a scale not beforehand attainable in India, and make them flight prepared inside days. Agnikul says this can assist shorten improvement cycles and pace up testing of latest designs.
In keeping with Instances of India (TOI), a key function is a depowdering machine developed in home to enhance put up processing. The system is designed to realize the floor high quality and reliability wanted for spaceflight whereas lowering dependence on exterior suppliers. With the ability now operational, the corporate expects to speed up the manufacturing of engines and different essential {hardware} for its launch autos at decrease value and on tighter timelines.
Moin SPM, co-founder and COO of Agnikul, stated, “This isn’t only a milestone for Agnikul, it’s a assertion of nationwide functionality.”
3D printing rocket engines at Agnikul
By establishing the LFAM facility, Agnikul expanded its additive manufacturing capability from experimental prototypes to giant flight-ready buildings. Just lately, AgniKul secured a US patent after producing what it claimed was the world’s largest single piece Inconel rocket engine, measuring about one metre in size.
Printed as an built-in construction operating from gasoline inlet to exhaust with out welds, joints or fasteners, the engine was meant to simplify manufacturing whereas lowering weak factors. The corporate famous that the method lower manufacturing time by greater than 60%, representing a notable improvement in additive manufacturing at this scale.
In February 2021, the startup examined Agnilet, a semi-cryogenic engine manufactured in a single 3D printing run. Designed for the Agnibaan launch car, which is able to carrying as much as 100 kg into low Earth orbits of round 700 km, the engine demonstrated the effectivity of additive manufacturing. On the time, AgniKul famous it may very well be produced in beneath 4 days and at solely a fraction of the price of typical meeting.
Elsewhere, the area startup efficiently carried out the maiden launch of its Agnibaan Suborbital Technological Demonstrator (SOrTeD), simply two days after an earlier try was known as off.
Powered by Agnilet, the single-stage rocket marked the nation’s first managed flight of such know-how. In keeping with TOI, the mission additionally achieved two different milestones: India’s first rocket launch from a personal pad at Sriharikota and its first flight powered by a semi-cryogenic engine. Designed as a take a look at flight, SOrTeD validated Agnikul’s in-house techniques whereas gathering essential flight knowledge.
3D printing scales rocket manufacturing
The usage of additive manufacturing in constructing area rockets has been steadily increasing. Final 12 months, NASA engineer Paul Gradl famous in an interview with 3D Printing Trade that metallic 3D printing now performs a significant function within the design and manufacturing of rocket engines.
In a associated improvement, SpaceX signed a $5 million licensing cope with Velo3D for 3D printers, including to earlier agreements between the 2 corporations. SpaceX already applies this know-how in making its Raptor engines, and Elon Musk has described the agency’s metallic 3D printing functionality as probably the most superior within the discipline.
Earlier in August, Korean launch startup INNOSPACE accelerated in-house manufacturing of hybrid rocket elements by putting in three Eplus3D metallic powder mattress fusion (PBF) techniques at its Hwaseong Campus, permitting the corporate to provide 13 core elements for the HANBIT rocket line. The brand new Superior Manufacturing Division introduced end-to-end engine manufacturing beneath one roof, reducing prices by as much as 50% and lowering lead occasions.
The power included an EP-M450 large-format 3D printer and two EP-M300 machines able to constructing each giant structural components and smaller complicated elements. Among the many first outputs had been oxidizer pumps for the HANBIT-Nano car, which handed acceptance checks and moved towards serial manufacturing.
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Featured picture reveals (L-R): Co-Founder and COO, Moin SPM with Srinath Ravichandran, Co-Founder and CEO of AgniKul Cosmos. Picture by way of Enterprise Normal.
