Thales Alenia Space, based in Toulouse, France, is one of the leading aerospace suppliers in the world, with revenues topping 2 billion Euros in 2014. The company has 7,500 employees in eight countries, specializing in space telecommunications, navigation, Earth observation, exploration and orbital infrastructures.
Thales Alenia Space worked with the 3D Systems’ On Demand Manufacturing team in Belgium to design and print the LaserForm Ti Gr5 (A) brackets and guarantee that all quality aspects and tolerances were met.
Thales Alenia Space and 3D Systems worked together to apply topological optimization to the 3D printing process following a design for manufacturability approach. Topological optimization determines the most-efficient material layout to meet the exact performance specifications of a part. It takes into consideration the given space allowed, loads that need to be handled, boundary conditions and other critical engineering factors.
Each of the four brackets for the satellite required an individualized design, as they are mounted on the antenna’s reflector edges and screwed onto a shaped surface.
Solutions:
The antenna brackets were produced by 3D Systems on 3D Systems’ ProX DMP 320 machine. The ProX DMP 320 is designed for heavy-duty metal parts production. It uses a totally new architecture that simplifies set-up and provides the versatility to produce all types of part geometries in titanium (grades 1, 5 and 23), nickel superalloy and Stainless 316L.
Exchangeable manufacturing modules deliver increased applications versatility and less downtime when moving among different part materials. A controlled vacuum build chamber ensures that every part is printed with proven material properties, density and chemical purity.
Extremely low O2 levels in the ProX DMP 320 deliver several key benefits, including better conservation of powder quality, no micro-oxidation of parts during printing, fewer oxide interstitials during printing, and improved mechanical properties for O2-sensitive alloys such as titanium.
Benefits:
The combination of 3D Systems’ expertise and the advanced capabilities of the ProX DMP 320 delivered exactly what Thales Alenia Space needed in about half the time it would have taken with traditional manufacturing.
The DMP-produced titanium brackets are 25-percent lighter than brackets manufactured by traditional means and feature a better stiffness-to-weight ratio.
Production costs have been reduced considerably and total time from order to shipping—including file preparation, 3D printing, heat treatment, finishing, CNC milling, quality-control analysis, cleaning and data traceability—was four to five weeks, compared to 10 weeks using traditional methods.