Titanium pressure vessel for space exploration built successfully using the Wire + Arc additive manufacturing process

The piece is approximately 1m in height and 8.5kg in mass. Made of the

a

titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V), it has been deposited using the Wire + Arc Additive

Manufacturing (WAAM) process, which Cranfield University has pioneered over the last decade.

Thanks to being able to go straight from digital drawing to final structure, WAAM has integrated two individual pieces into a single part; eliminating the need for long-lead-time forgings; and substantially reduced the amount of waste material removed by machining.

If manufactured traditionally, the component would have required about 30 times more raw material than its final mass. By using the WAAM process, more than 200 kg of Ti-6Al-4V has been saved for each item. There is room to improve this further, and Cranfield is working on innovative methods to deposit closer to the final thickness.

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