CIRA has reached another important milestone for the ESA Space Rider project, the first European reusable space transportation system, funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), with Thales Alenia Space Italia (TAS-I) as prime contractor. The 3D-printed Titanium alloy for the attachments of the Body Flaps have passed all tests and have been approved by ESA for manufacturing of spaceflight components.
The components are manufactured in Ti6Al4V alloy by using the Electron Beam-Powder Bed Fusion (EB-PBF) technology available at the CIRA Additive Manufacturing Laboratory and are designed to support the Space Rider's control surfaces during all phases of the mission, particularly during reentry, withstanding thermal and mechanical loads not just once, but for six missions.
“This achievement was made possible through the effort of Space Rider Project Team and it further demonstrates CIRA’s expertise in developing, manufacturing, and qualifying advanced technologies and components for space systems,” said Mario De Stefano Fumo, System and Technology Manager of Space Rider TPS & BFA. Stefania Franchitti and Rosario Borrelli (EB-PBF Technology R&D Managers) added that "the approval from the European Space Agency (ESA) rewards CIRA's extensive efforts spent to qualify additive manufacturing technology for spaceflight, increasing its potential for use in other applications.
"The EB-PBF process is based on the distribution of a thin layer of powder, which is then heated and selectively melted by an electron beam. This sequence is repeated layer by layer, adding new layers of powder until the part is complete. It is a high-temperature, vacuum-operated process, which results in components with material properties better than those obtained by casting and comparable to wrought.
CIRA has been working on this technology since 2013, within the Italian Aerospace Research Program (Pro.R.A.) and through international research projects to develop flight-ready solutions for both aeronautics and space systems.
The approval process included numerous activities following a building block approach, starting with the characterization of the powder raw material and of the witness specimens produced simultaneously with the prototypes. Mechanical tests, dimensional analyses, inspections using tomography and penetrant liquids, metallographic analyses, and specialized thermomechanical tests were subsequently performed on prototypes to simulate the expected thermal and mechanical conditions upon re-entry, until the complete qualification of the hardware integrated with the Body Flap
With ESA approval, CIRA now is ready to produce the first complete set of flight attachments for both port and starboard Body Flap Assemblies.
