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Indian startup 3D prints rocket engine in 72 hours

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Re: Indian startup 3D prints rocket engine in 72 hours

#81

Post by filcuk »

wiseowise wrote: post #68
constantcrying wrote: post #63

>Constructing a rocket engine using conventional approaches can take months, followed by extensive qualification testing to ensure it meets the required specifications. Using a metal 3D printer from German company EOS, Agnikul produced its engine in roughly three days. Agnikul printed the engine out of inconel, a high-performance alloy of nickel and chromium that can withstand high temperatures and mechanical loads.…

[flagged]

This is a very ignorant comment, as is the one you're replying to. Making engine nozzles used to be extremely manual and involved process, which could take up to a year to make a single nozzle. These need very particular channels within the walls for cooling, and that's impossible to manufacture with simple reductive methods. They used to form wax modls and deposit nanometre layers of metal.

Re: Indian startup 3D prints rocket engine in 72 hours

#82

Post by HarHarVeryFunny »

CarVac wrote: post #70
HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #55

Relativity Space are also 3-D printing not just rocket engines, but entire rockets, and have had a successful first flight. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz165f1g8-E

They backed away from printing entire rockets because, well, it's a foolish way to fabricate large tanks.

Thanks - I wasn't aware of that, but it does make sense.

They are sticking with 3-D printing of the engines though, and have been testing their next-gen Aeon R engine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjKJMcOQYBQ

Re: Indian startup 3D prints rocket engine in 72 hours

#83

Post by aamoyg »

triceratops wrote: post #66
aamoyg wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It takes them 40 years to make a contemporary fighter jet, not all of which is in house, and they cannot make an infantry rifle, tank, or any defense equipment that their DoD equivalent is happy with outside of "ring laser gyroscopes", which was developed as a part of their guided missile program, which was made with covert and overt Russian and possibly Iraqi help. They cannot make their own trainsets, cars, and con…

> Most of Japanese innovation is actually from US companies that they took over. Just gonna leave this here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Japanese_inventions_an... Hopefully you'll realize that that is one of the more uninformed takes you've had, and then question the other things you think are true.

I clicked on that list. I went to pocket calculator, and it said the first one was made in the United States.

Re: Indian startup 3D prints rocket engine in 72 hours

#84

Post by [deleted] »

sa1 wrote: post #71
constantcrying wrote: post #63

>Constructing a rocket engine using conventional approaches can take months, followed by extensive qualification testing to ensure it meets the required specifications. Using a metal 3D printer from German company EOS, Agnikul produced its engine in roughly three days. Agnikul printed the engine out of inconel, a high-performance alloy of nickel and chromium that can withstand high temperatures and mechanical loads.…

What part is not true? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz165f1g8-E I'm sure that there are lots of problems with this approach, but it is not as obvious as your comment makes it out to be.

[deleted]

Re: Indian startup 3D prints rocket engine in 72 hours

#85

Post by stainablesteel »

constantcrying wrote: post #63

>Constructing a rocket engine using conventional approaches can take months, followed by extensive qualification testing to ensure it meets the required specifications. Using a metal 3D printer from German company EOS, Agnikul produced its engine in roughly three days. Agnikul printed the engine out of inconel, a high-performance alloy of nickel and chromium that can withstand high temperatures and mechanical loads.…

relativity space does this as well, they have youtube videos on what they do

Re: Indian startup 3D prints rocket engine in 72 hours

#86

Post by aamoyg »

eks391 wrote: post #79
Spod_Gaju wrote: post #58

[flagged]

The primary purpose of rockets these days is to put satellites into space, not to bomb people. This includes the rockets built by the world's militaries.

Guided missiles fall under the umbrella of rockets. There are far more guided and unguided missiles in the world than rockets for peaceful purposes.

The primary purpose of rockets is to annihilate an enemy military with a secondary benefit being to put things and sometimes people into space. That's how it was pitched, and that's how it will always be.

Re: Indian startup 3D prints rocket engine in 72 hours

#87

Post by krisoft »

constantcrying wrote: post #63

>Constructing a rocket engine using conventional approaches can take months, followed by extensive qualification testing to ensure it meets the required specifications. Using a metal 3D printer from German company EOS, Agnikul produced its engine in roughly three days. Agnikul printed the engine out of inconel, a high-performance alloy of nickel and chromium that can withstand high temperatures and mechanical loads.…

> Besides, the question I have is why 3D printing?

Rocket nozzles are heat limited. You could get more trust out of them only if the nozzle would not melt. So you do a lot of tricks to cool it. One of those many tricks is that you circulate your rocket fuel as a coolant in the wall of the nozzle. This requires an intricate web of many tiny pipes which form the wall of the nozzle.

Typically these are constructed by hand by brazing together many many pipes. That takes forever. In contrast additive methods seem to perform well in this application.

This is standard stuff nowadays. Everyone seems to be doing it. I'm not sure what is your objection. If you don't believe me listen to Tony Bruno: https://youtu.be/Bh7Xf3Ox7K8?si=YVDIDq1bvKeCuvY9&t=1509

> This plainly is not true

Which particular part are you objecting to?

Re: Indian startup 3D prints rocket engine in 72 hours

#90

Post by wongarsu »

constantcrying wrote: post #63

>Constructing a rocket engine using conventional approaches can take months, followed by extensive qualification testing to ensure it meets the required specifications. Using a metal 3D printer from German company EOS, Agnikul produced its engine in roughly three days. Agnikul printed the engine out of inconel, a high-performance alloy of nickel and chromium that can withstand high temperatures and mechanical loads.…

3d printing rocket engines makes a lot of sense. The engines of Rocket Lab's Electron rocket are 3d printed, Aerojet Rocketdyne's AR1 engines have 3d printed fuel injectors, SpaceX's SuperDraco thrusters (the ones in the Dragon 2 capsules) are 3d printed. Complex geometries with lots of liquid channels make rocket engines difficult to machine, so overcoming the issues with 3d printing heat-resistant parts is well worth it.

But skipping qualification testing is indeed a weird reason. I doubt you can skip test fires.

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