WURAM

The Italian Space Agency (ASI), within the scope of its institutional tasks, taking into account the competition underway at European level, with the aim of stimulating the national research fabric and consolidating the national role and the leadership position already obtained by the industrial and research sector, promotes highly innovative technological development projects. With resolution no. 147/2020 of 15/07/2020 ASI approved the issuance of the Innovative Space Technologies Call for Proposals, for the assignment of research and development activities of space technologies. In particular, the Three-Year Activity Plan 2021-2023 provides for the development of low TRL technologies and innovative space architectures, through disruptive Innovation activities, aimed at supporting future space missions, not feasible through current technologies, through long-term initiatives (over 5 years).

The aims of the initiative include the following:

• Acquire innovative projects that allow ASI to develop radically innovative and enabling technologies for space that can be used in future ASI space programs;
• Stimulate the technological leap in the space sector by promoting an activity of mining innovative ideas in institutional settings (Universities, Research Centers, etc.) and in industrial sectors other than the space sector;
• Stimulate excellence in areas considered critical and strategic for the scientific and industrial space community;
• Actively participate in the independence process in the field of critical enabling technologies of the space production system.

In this innovative context, in the operational domain of Materials & Processes, Sòphia High Tech was the winner of the tender, through the project proposal WURAM [poWders cUstomization pRocess for Additive Manufacturing], lasting 24 months, having as its technological target: the Development and Realization of a custom metal powder based on Copper-Steel, to be applied for the manufacturing of combustors/exchangers/propellers in Additive Layer Manufacturing

One of the major issues related to space missions is the need to create propulsion systems capable of operating, without failure, in extreme environments, with temperatures ranging from deeply below zero to thermal peaks of hundreds of degrees. In particular, propulsion systems are severely stressed and require adequate sizing to withstand such conditions, which does not go in the same direction as maximum weight containment. The solution to this problem is the development of ad hoc materials, capable of combining the different properties required and maintaining them in extreme environments, such as those in which space missions take place.

To date, the market, both aerospace and otherwise, has shown a growing need for products with customized geometries that are not always achievable using conventional technologies. This need must necessarily be combined, on the one hand, with a predetermined performance level of the product in operation and, on the other, with cost competitiveness, which is why in-depth knowledge of the processes that globally contribute to defining the overall product costs becomes of crucial importance.

Additive manufacturing, in addition to being an important research front that pushes to overcome some technological limits, imposed by conventional technologies, represents a green production method, applicable to various industrial sectors, which allows the creation of objects (parts, components, semi-finished or finished products) not otherwise producible with the technologies conventionally used in the industrial field. The WURAM project takes shape downstream of the consolidation of additive technology in the industrial field, which, consistently with the life cycle of a product/process, passes from the delicate phase of cutting-edge research to that of alternative production technology capable of significantly impacting the market. In fact, within the frenetic and pressing “space race”, high-performance materials are becoming increasingly necessary, in a scenario characterized by low development/qualification costs, therefore equipped with a high process repeatability and above all with intrinsic customization capacity.

The WURAM Project revolutionizes the concept of additive manufacturing for space propulsion systems, developing a new technological process, inserted upstream of AM, to obtain complex parts, in a completely custom metal alloy. Through WURAM it will not only be possible to customize the shape of Parts, exploiting the potential of AM, but even customize their material, mixing metal powders.

• Project Title: Powders Customization Process For Additive Manufacturing
• Acronym: WURAM – poWders cUstomization pRocess for Additive Manufacturing
• Field of application: Materials and Processes
• Research target: Development and Production of a custom Copper-Steel based metal powder, for the production of combustors/exchangers/propellers in Additive Layer Manufacturing
• Project duration: 24 months

The new powder is made through the advanced technological mixing process [POWMIX], already developed and qualified by SOPHIA in the production of space combustors. This technology is based on a mixing process that uses the principle of the fluidized bed excited by acoustic fields. The choice of materials to be homogenized obviously takes into account the characteristics to be given to the product in operation. Mixing is in fact obtained by enhancing certain properties (mechanical, thermal, electrical, acoustic, electromagnetic compatibility, etc.) of some appropriately selected alloying elements. The new material developed in the WURAM project must ensure high thermal conductivity, associated with notable mechanical properties.

The project focuses on the copper/steel mix [17-4_PH-Cu], useful for increasing the mechanical performance of pure copper (and thermal performance of steel) to develop a lightweight material to be used as the only national and international reference for the production of space engines in the ALM environment. In order to demonstrate both the robustness of the production process and the material developed in WURAM, SOPHIA intends to create a technological demonstrator for widespread use in satellite propulsion applications: a Chemical Propellant Thruster, used for moving satellites in orbit.