ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING FOR USER TERMINAL FRONT-ENDS (ARTES 5.1 7A.028) EXPRO+ (RE-ISSUE OF ITT 1-8093)

Description

The objective of this activity is to design, manufacture and test breadboards for User Terminal front ends using additive manufacturing.

Targeted improvements: Reduce manufacturing effort by 75%.

Description:Many satellite based solutions offer product for niche professional markets. For manufacturers that serve these markets, the limited volumes pose a challenge in terms of reaching scales of economy and low cost manufacturing. For example, due to limited volumes, the use of dedicated moulds are excluded as a cost effective manufacturing technique, leaving the use of relatively expensive machining as the alternative option. Additive manufacturing is steadily gaining maturity and accuracy. It offers a very cost effective manufacturing technique for low to medium volumes and is therefore well suited for many satellite applications. There are, however, issues with additive manufacturing that needs investigating. Often the manufacturing results in discretized approximations of the real smooth curved surfaces. Furthermore, the materials available are limited and not necessarily optimised for RF performance. This activity will explore additive manufacturing techniques to implement satellite antenna front end structures to enable a cost effective solution. Examples where additive manufacturing can potentially offer benefits are for low profile mobile satellite antennas and for (doubly) curved surfaces with Frequency Selective Surface (FSS) on sub-reflectors. The tasks for this activity include study and selection of the most promising application areas and initial designs with additive manufacturing techniques, like 3D printing or computer controlled pressing/stamping. For selected breadboards, the activity shall perform detailed design, implementation and test. Conclusions will be drawn and proposals for future development activities will be suggested.

Procurement Policy: C(1) = Activity restricted to non-prime contractors (incl. SMEs). For additional information please go to EMITS news "Industrial Policy measures for non-primes, SMEs and R&D entities in ESA programmes".

Tender Specifics