EOS' AMCM has completed the world's largest 3D printing gas-powered rocket engine. The engine was designed entirely in the German enterprise software Hyperganic Core using advanced software algorithms, eliminating the need for any manual CAD modeling process, and at the same time possibly being the most complex additively manufactured part ever produced - breaking all traditional workflows. Printed in copper on AMCM's massive 1m build volume 3D printing facility, the engine is 80cm tall.
Powerful algorithm
This Aerospike rocket engine demonstrates the possibilities of combining the power of software algorithms with the world's most advanced 3D printing-additive manufacturing system.
Air-powered rocket motors offer significant advantages over traditional bell-nozzle designs. The Aerospike engine is a rocket motor that maintains its aerodynamic efficiency over a wide range of altitudes. It belongs to the category of highly compensated nozzle engines.
Aerospike engines use 25-30% of the fuel at low altitudes, where the thrust is the most demanding for most missions. Aerospike engines are huge advancements in rocketry, and even a fraction of a percent is worth pursuing. The challenge is always cooling spikes in the middle of extremely hot exhaust.
This Aerospike engine design is efficient and builds on the latest knowledge in space hardware engineering combined with the body of knowledge used for Hyperganic heat exchanger design. The Aerospike concept is well known and easy to understand. The first designs appeared in the 1960s and 1970s, but at that time NASA had to opt for a traditional bell-shaped nozzle because cooling the spikes was not possible using traditional engineering and manufacturing techniques in the Aerospike's design.
In a way, the Aerospike needs to be a giant, ultra-efficient heat exchanger that uses cryogenic liquid oxygen to keep the spikes from melting, and 3D printing makes those manufacturing challenges a breeze.
In minutes, Hyperganic Core can create virtually any engine design imaginable, including jet heads, advanced heat transfer systems, and complex combustor geometries, with different thrust levels and different sizes, with software that can quickly iterate and adapt Come up with the best design in a matter of minutes in one iteration.
Automatically generate parts
Hypertonic has developed a voxel-level design software for additive manufacturing that removes the design constraints of STL files. Hypertonic automatically generates parts through algorithms for creating complex functional bionic structures.
The principle behind the design is design through mathematical algorithms, without any CAD model. The 3D printing rocket engine model is created through a digital evolution process. The algorithm in the evolution process will generate hundreds of variant models, and the software will perform physical simulation verification on these models to screen out the most suitable models. The resulting 3D printed rocket engine design has a completely different look than a human design.
The design of the two engines with a height of 80cm and a height of 40cm is not the same, not just the size. Parts for additive manufacturing are often very complex and difficult to implement with traditional CAD software. Hypertonic addresses this difficulty with voxel-level 3D models that can be viewed in CAD. Hyperganic's business model is also innovative, they don't sell software, but provide customers with printing parameters for success, which could mean Hyperganic creates a revenue-sharing model for customers.
The Aerospike engine features a bell-shaped nozzle that compresses the expanding gas. The basic shape is a bell turned inside out. The design of the Aerospike exhaust manifold is basically the opposite of a traditional bell-shaped rocket. The thrust of the traditional bell-shaped rocket commonly used on the space shuttle is gradually reduced. The Aerospike structure design concept can maintain the thrust of the rocket after it leaves the ground.
Aerospike structures are difficult to construct by traditional manufacturing techniques, including a series of associated engineering difficulties: cooling, weight, and manufacturing costs. Through 3D printing technology, complex geometries can be created, including parts that are prone to interference by machining, which can be effectively solved by 3D printing technology. With today's 3D printing technology and new materials such as copper alloys, a functional and economically viable Aerospike engine can be built with little cost and time.