3D Printed titanium for Space Exploration!

I was pleased to see the exciting reaction to last week’s Linkedin post of mine on the subject of 3D printing of titanium. I’m always on red alert for any time someone mentions the word “titanium” in real life or on TV. The last time I heard it on TV a few weeks ago (on Amazon Prime), I jumped out of my seat when the rogue Belter leader Marco Inaros in “The Expanse” added a defensive rail gun to the Ring Station defenses using “welded titanium laces” whatever that means, but it sounded cool! Of course he used titanium, why not? It’s the best engineering material in the solar system, now and will still be, even in the 23rd century!

In the image above, we can see some examples of 3D printed Ti-6Al-4V parts produced for Agile Space Industries, who are manufacturing all kinds of propulsion devices for space exploration. Propulsion devices (anything that pushes spacecraft, vehicles, satellites, and probes through the atmosphere or in the vacuum of space) include a wide variety of components for engines, that include fuel tanks, turbomachinery, combustion chambers, exhaust management systems and all kinds of structural components that hold these parts together. Titanium is suitable for the kinds of parts where its strength-to-weight ratio is an advantage, or where its corrosion resistance to low pH fluids is useful. It cannot be used for absolutely everything – just like every other material, it has its pros and cons. What we call “high strength” for titanium only reaches around the 180-200 ksi range, maybe 220 ksi if you can push the heavily beta-stabilized alloys. It is not recommended for LOX chambers. High temperature for titanium maxes out at about 1100-1200°F so very hot chamber combustion isn’t really suitable for what powder metal is commonly available right now. BUT, if we can use 3D printing to push the boundaries of alloy chemistry to create material systems which cannot be easily made with traditional titanium ingot metallurgy, either gamma aluminides or alloys where the heavy amount of beta stabilizers can make traditional forging and rolling difficult or impossible.

We are not quite at the point where we need to worry about printing rail guns in some intra-solar system conflict, but the thought of 3D printed titanium parts in space is here: for now and the future!

[With kind thanks to Buck Helfferich for the image and status update!]