Nasa has produced the first copper rocket engine component, a combustion chamber liner, using 3D printing technology.
The combustion chamber liner was built using a copper alloy GRCo-84, created by scientists at the agency’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.
The rocket part was produced using 8,255 layers of copper powder, fused using a laser melting machine in Marshall’s materials and processing laboratory.
Before producing the liner, Nasa worked on various test parts and characterised the material, to evaluate the 3D printing processing parameters. A process was also created for additive manufacturing with copper.
According to Nasa, use of additive manufacturing helps reduce rocket components manufacturing costs.
Nasa space technology mission directorate associate administrator Steve Jurczyk said: "Building the first full-scale, copper rocket part with additive manufacturing is a milestone for aerospace 3D printing.
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By GlobalData"Additive manufacturing is one of many technologies we are embracing to help us continue our journey to Mars and even sustain explorers living on the Red Planet."
In rocket combustion chambers, the super-cold propellants are heated to extreme temperatures to propel rockets to space.
Nasa Marshall Space Flight Center engineering directorate director Chris Singer said: "On the inside of the paper-edge-thin copper liner wall, temperatures soar to over 5,000°F, and we have to keep it from melting by re-circulating gases cooled to less than 100 degrees above absolute zero on the other side of the wall.
"To circulate the gas, the combustion chamber liner has more than 200 intricate channels built between the inner and outer liner wall. Making these tiny passages with complex internal geometries challenged our additive manufacturing team."
The copper liner is part of Nasa’s low cost upper stage-class propulsion project. It will be transported to the agency’s Langley Research Center where an electron beam fabrication facility will direct deposit a nickel super-alloy structural jacket onto the copper liner surface.
Glenn Research Center will create a database of mechanical properties to assess future 3D printed rocket engine designs.
The data will be available to US manufacturers in Nasa’s Materials and Processing Information System (MAPTIS).
Image: The copper liner was produced using 8,255 layers of copper powder. Photo: courtesy of Nasa / MSFC / Emmett Given.
