I-Corps: Rapid Manufacturing for High Efficiency Heat Exchangers

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将使热交换器类部件(具有复杂的内部几何结构)能够更有效地生产，目前这些部件的制造时间密集且成本高昂。该项目起源于全3D打印火箭发动机研究。该项目为液体火箭发动机的大规模生产提供了解决方案，从而使向太空发射基础设施的情况将更加频繁。为了满足日益增长的需求造成的积压，航天工业需要更快的火箭发射速度，以便将基础设施(如卫星)送入太空。发动机制造技术抑制了运载火箭的生产，进而限制了满足运载火箭行业需求的能力。提供一种快速生产技术来制造大量的高效率火箭发动机，将使发射成本和生产时间大大减少。快速生产复杂热交换器的商业影响还将使行业能够迭代设计，并降低工业应用中生产单元的总成本。制造高效热交换器可以减少组件尺寸生产，从而减少复杂系统的总质量。高效热交换器的工业应用广泛应用于喷气发动机制造、热电厂和大型炼油厂制造行业。这个i-Corps项目改进了传统的发动机制造方法，甚至是新的添加剂制造方法，使用专有技术快速生产完全再生冷却的发动机。该技术是对最难制造的发动机部件进行物理制造和组装的过程，与目前的方法相比，可以分别减少90%的生产时间和80%的成本。两台全3D打印的火箭发动机已经制造完成并进行了测试。其中一个3D打印火箭发动机是在探空火箭e上发射的，该火箭被设计成飞行物品，并验证了迄今为止的工作。第三代引擎将改善传统3D金属打印的高孔隙率、大量后处理步骤以及批量和尺寸生产的可扩展性的缺陷。该团队将致力于解决和解决传统3D金属打印的缺陷，以实现复杂热交换器的大规模生产。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project will be to enable more efficient production of heat exchanger-like components (featuring complex internal geometries) that are currently time intensive and costly to manufacture. The project has its origins in fully 3D printed rocket engine research. The project provides a solution for the mass production of liquid rocket engines so that launching infrastructure to space will happen more frequently. In order to meet the backlog from rising demand, the space industry needs a more rapid rate of rocket launches to deliver infrastructure (such as satellites) into space. Engine manufacturing technology has stifled launch vehicle production, which in turn has restricted the ability to meet demand in the launch vehicle industries. Providing a rapid production technique to fabricate large quantities of high efficiency rocket engines will allow launch costs and production time to be reduced significantly. The commercial impact of rapidly producing complex heat exchangers will also allow industries to iterate on designs and decrease total cost for production units in industrial applications. Manufacturing high efficiency heat exchangers allows for decreased component size production which can decrease total mass for complex systems. Industrial applications for high efficiency heat exchangers exist in the jet engine manufacturing, thermal power plant, and large-scale refinery manufacturing industries.This I-Corps project improves upon conventional engine manufacturing methods and even new additive manufacturing methods by using a proprietary technology to quickly produce fully regeneratively cooled engines. The technology is a physical fabrication and assembly process for the hardest-to-manufacture engine components that can decrease production time by 90% and cost by 80%, respectively, compared to current methods. Two fully 3D printed rocket engines have been fabricated and tested. One of the 3D printed rocket engines was launched on a sounding rocket e created to serve as a flight article and validate the work to date. The third-generation engine will improve upon conventional 3D metal printing deficiencies of high porosity, numerous post processing steps, and scalability in both volume and size production. The team will work to address and account for the deficiencies with conventional 3D metal printing to allow for mass production of complex heat exchangers.