航天manufacturer波音has begun using 3D printing to ramp up its production of a Wideband Global SATCOM or ‘WGS’ satellite for theUS Space Force。
波音公司是一份6.05亿美元的合同的一部分，正在建立美国太空部队的下一代WGS-11+的过程，该系统具有比其前任更大的任务支持和反拘留能力的系统。通过将3D打印引入COMMS卫星的生产工作流程中，该公司预计能够大幅度地减少设备的交货时间，从多达十年减少到仅五年。
“We’re moving at record-breaking speed to deliver the unmatched resilience, efficiency, and throughput WGS-11+ offers our warfighters,” said Col. Matt Spencer, Space Systems Command Geosynchronous Earth Orbit and Polar Division Senior Materiel Leader. “Boeing’s ability to rapidly integrate the latest commercial technology into our infrastructure gives us a competitive edge on the battlefield.”
3D printing flight-ready parts
As a multinational manufacturer with aircraft to build and maintain across a vast portfolio, Boeing is continually seeking out more efficient ways of achieving this. One of the barriers to deploying 3D printing in this area is the high level of regulatory clearance needed for the deployment of parts in end-use applications, but the firm has become increasingly adept at overcoming this with industry partners.
与之合作EOS, for instance, the company has previously helped develop anaerospace-grade PEKK, designed specifically to meet the UV and flame retardancy standards set out in Federal Aviation Regulations, and more recently it hasqualified Stratasys’ Antero 800NAfilament as being flight-ready, as well as investigating the potential ofsustainable titanium 3D printingpowders alongsideTitomic。
波音is also known to apply additive manufacturing within several areas of its own production workflow, including the build of its 777X jet, which is powered byGE9X engines with over 300 3D printed parts。同样，与美国空军研究实验室和Thermwood, it’s said to have 3D printed航空航天高压灭菌工具capable of cost-effectively adapting to iteration.
When it comes to the manufacture of LEO devices, meanwhile, Boeing unveiled itsplan to 3D print satellitesback in 2017, and it has sincelaunched the SES-15system with over 50 additive manufactured components, and used the technology to produce everything from metal antennas to modular parts designed to expedite spacecraft production.
改善美国国防协调
自从2019年签订合同以来，波音公司一直在努力开发美国太空部队的最新WGS系统，即旨在连接美国，加拿大和澳大利亚部队的星座中的第十一系统。WGS设备通常用于取代较旧的防御卫星通信系统设置，该设置仍用于军事协调，通常据说可以使吞吐量更高。
现在，作为其计划的一部分，波音公司表示，它已设法整合了通过其的一些进步702X satelliteR&D, to take these benefits to the next level. Built around the same phased array technology, the WGS-11+ is set to be capable of generating hundreds of electronically-steered beams at the same time, providing users with more than twice the mission capacity of existing WGS satellites.
What’s more, just like the 720X, each individual beam can be shaped and therefore tailored to the needs of a specific operation, meaning that US Space Force adopters stand to gain from improved mission flexibility and responsiveness, while the WGS-11+ can also use dual polarization to narrow beam widths as a means of protecting against interference.
To bring this vision for a revised satellite to life, Boeing met with the US Space Force late last year, at which point they completed a critical design review before entering its production phase. It was at this point that Boeing committed to using advanced manufacturing methods such as 3D printing in the system’s build, in a way that could yield significant cost and lead time benefits, while boosting its performance.
In fact, by serially additive manufacturing WGS-11+ parts in their thousands, in a move that’sreportedto be a ten-fold increase on its previous satellites, the firm anticipates being able to reduce what’s usually a 7-10 year waiting time for large spacecraft down to just 5 years, and the finished system has now been penciled in for delivery in 2024.
“We’re printing more than a thousand parts for WGS-11+, giving us the capability to introduce customization in a way that improves system performance, without requiring extensive integration times or customized tooling,” adds Troy Dawson, Boeing’s VP of Government Satellite Systems. “We understand how important speed is to the mission. That production speed translates to effectiveness against threats.”
“随着我们继续投资于我们的技术和流程，我们知道，同样能力的卫星可以更快地传递。”
3D printing signal-boosting satellites
Of course, Boeing is far from the only aerospace manufacturer that has turned to 3D printing in a bid to improve the lead times and end-performance of its satellites. Early in 2021,空中客车revealed that it had managed tointegrate over 500 RF partsintoEutelsat的Hotbird satellites such as switch assembly networks and multi-waveguide blocks, in a way that was said to improve their broadcasting capabilities.
在今年晚些时候Fleet Space还宣布了启动其启动的计划fully-3D printed ‘Alpha’ satellitesin 2022. Built around the company’s advanced beamforming technology, which functions via an additive manufactured metal antenna array, the systems feature digital signal processing capabilities, designed to unlock greater user connectivity.
In terms of series production applications,Thales Alenia Spacerevealed that it was mass-manufacturing parts of itsSpacebus NEO platformas long ago as 2019. The device was first fitted to the commercial Eutelsat KONNECT satellite, a craft built to deliver a faster broadband connection to areas of Western Europe and Africa.
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Featured image shows a render of what the WGS-11+ is expected to look like. Image via Boeing.
