Aerojet Rocketdyne achieves 3-D printing milestone

Aerojet Rocketdyne, a subsidiary of Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:AJRD) has successfully hot-fire tested a full-scale, additively manufactured thrust chamber assembly for the RL10 rocket engine that was built from a copper alloy using selective laser melting (SLM) technology, which is often referred to as 3-D printing.

"We believe this is the largest copper-alloy thrust chamber ever built with 3-D printing and successfully tested," said Additive Manufacturing Program Manager Jeff Haynes. "Producing aerospace-quality components with additive manufacturing is challenging. Producing them with a high-thermal-conductivity copper alloy using SLM technology is even more difficult. Infusing this technology into full-scale rocket engines is truly transformative as it opens up new design possibilities for our engineers and paves the way for a new generation of low-cost rocket engines."

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Aerojet_Rocketdyne_achieves_3_D_printing_milestone_999.html