Scottish rocketeers Orbex commission Europe's largest industrial 3D printer to crank out 35 engines a year
- Reference: 1614178894
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/02/24/orbex_3d_printing/
- Source link:
The beast, accommodated in an expansion of Orbex's factory of 1,000 square metres, will churn out the large-scale rocket engines and main stage turbopump systems as the company scales things up for actual launches.
[1]
Forres-based Orbex has yet to propel anything into space, but wants to use Space Hub Sutherland at the A' Mhòine peninsula. The Sutherland site was granted planning permission last year, and construction is due to kick off in 2021. A first orbital launch could take place as soon as 2022.
[2]
Orbex 3D-printed rocket engine in Stage 2 rocket engineering prototype (pic: Orbex)
[3]
Orbex intends to print its engines as a single piece using a custom blend of metals, including titanium and aluminium. The intention is that weaknesses will be eliminated by doing away with welds and joining.
The company [4]recently secured $24m in a funding round led by BGF and Octopus Ventures, and has confirmed six satellite launch contracts, starting in 2022.
This is assuming that the company's Prime rocket (capable of [5]lofting up to 180kg , environmentally friendly and [6]80 per cent reusable , according to Orbex) works as expected.
[7]
Orbex Stage 2 rocket Prime (pic: Orbex)
Orbex has plenty of competition, not least from a fellow Scottish outfit, the Edinburgh-based Skyrora, which is aiming to launch the heftier Skyrora XL (capable of 315kg payload mass) from a UK site in 2023.
Farther afield are incumbents in the commercial small satellite launch market, Rocket Lab, which also uses 3D printing in the manufacturing of both its Rutherford engines – used to power its Electron rocket – and the Curie engine used for the company's kick stage.
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Rocket Lab also claims a 24-hour print time for its engines. ®
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[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_science/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YDaGLabij7LdHwL7IOP12wAAAEc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/02/24/orbex3drocket.jpg
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_science/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YDaGLabij7LdHwL7IOP12wAAAEc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://orbex.space/news/orbex-secures-24-million-funding-round-for-uk-space-launch
[5] https://orbex.space/services
[6] https://orbex.space/vehicle
[7] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/02/24/orbexprime.jpg
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[9] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Suddenly..
A single solid block probably wouldn't be much good for anything other than 1:1 scale models though.
Re: Suddenly..
"A single solid block probably wouldn't be much good for anything other than 1:1 scale models though."
Well, you *could* print doors with hinges in place using a small amount of support material that you cut off once the print is finished. However, you couldn't do that for internal combustion engine parts because of the part tolerances needed. (Plus I defy anyone to print a cylinder ring in place with the spring it needs to actually function properly....)
As an aside, I seem to remember a story about an abandoned alien subway / tube train which the human archeologists thought had been cast in one piece, which is possible for some simple 3D designs. We're not there yet, but we're getting closer. The story might have been called "The subway of Kazoo" or something similar...
Re: Suddenly..
https://www.sffchronicles.com/threads/565433/
"The Unorthodox Engineers were the subject of a series of science fiction short stories by Colin Kapp. They were a misfit bunch of engineers who solved problems of alien technology/weird planets in the future. The stories had a very large grain-of-salt-type humor.
They were commanded by maverick engineer Fritz van Noon and included, amongst others, a convicted bank robber as quartermaster (on the entirely-sound grounds that he was likely to be the most capable person for the job).
The Unorthodox Engineers originally appeared in various British SF magazines:
"The Railways Up on Cannis" (New Worlds October, 1959)
"The Subways of Tazoo" (New Writings in SF 3)
"The Pen and the Dark" (New Writings in SF 8)
"Getaway from Getawehi" (New Writings in SF 16)
"The Black Hole of Negrav" (New Writings in SF 25)."
Metric tonne?
As opposed to some other kind of tonne?
Re: Metric tonne?
Tonny! Tonni! Tonné!
Are you arguing with the 'metric' or the 'ne'? Given the space industries ability to confuse imperial and metric units, with resulting mars-shaking kabooms, avoiding confusion with short tons or long tons is probably sensible in any case.
All these exciting new technologies!
It's not rocket science... oh, wait...
Suddenly..
That whole anti pirate ad about stealing cars seems even more ironic considering that printer sounds like it'd be capable of printing a whole car in one go.
I wonder if we're ever going to see reasonable priced metal printers for the home like we have with the plastic printers?
Icon: for when they test the rocket in Australia(if they ever do)...