Solid Rocket Motor Factory in a Box
The Air Force Research Lab introduces a concept for the production of jet engines for aircraft missiles - in a box. According to AFRL, methods are needed to accelerate technology transfer and minimize barriers of entry to commercial firms. The "Production on Demand' program seeks to advance four manufacturing technologies and develop an AFRL native, rapid, and flexible solid rocket motor (SRM) prototyping capability.
Transcript
00:00:08 u.s solid rocket motor r d design and manufacturing have markedly improved since their inception in the 1940s however this process has resisted change making the fielding of new srms a time and resource intensive endeavor technology demonstration srms typically require
00:00:36 eight to ten years to realize live fire testing and operational srms can require up to 20 years for full rate production u.s supremacy and rocketry is diminishing and adversarial threats are coming of age new methods are needed to accelerate tech transfer
00:00:56 and to reduce barriers of entry to commercial firms production on demand seeks to advance four manufacturing technologies and develop an afrl native rapid and flexible srm prototyping capability the interaction of microfluidic reactor synthesis of precision ingredients resonant
00:01:18 acoustic mixing of solid rocket propellant additive manufacturing of solid rocket propellant and internal insulation and direct filament winding will afford a precisely controllable rapid prototyping capability for srms the production on demand program is a
00:01:39 three-phase program in phase one the development efforts in the four srm technology areas are advanced in a compartmentalized fashion computational modeling and simulation tools will analyze the intended application of the srm glean the needed specifications and select a design based on those
00:02:01 results once a demonstration threshold is achieved for resonant acoustic mixing 3d printing and direct filament winding integration of the process elements will begin successful integration of the production on demand or pod process elements will utilize machine learning
00:02:22 principles require networked communication of equipment and minimize the need for human labor the process elements work together by first selecting a propellant formulation station a then remotely doses the solid and liquid ingredients for a two pound batch of solid propellant into a container
00:02:42 safety concerns are taken into full account during dosing once ingredients are dosed the containers are sealed and passed to the ram platform for mixing additive manufacturing is utilized to not only print the propellant grain but also to print the motor's nozzle [Music] the 3d printing cobots work in
00:03:10 conjunction with one laying down layers of material and the other using a curing device attached to its wrist after each layer is produced an additional cobot arm scans the surface looking for flaws that other cobots can repair after printing the propellant grains are transferred to a storage rack and then onto a filament winding shaft
00:03:33 in a rare case of human interaction the vertical filament winding machine the operator and a cobot work collaboratively to install the internal insulation in the composite structural case the completed srm are removed from final station and is ready for use during the automated manufacturing of the srm
00:04:00 a digital twin is created through the inspection process the digital model can be used to predict performance and further refine the manufacturing process in the final phase of the project redesigned and more advanced amram 5 rocket motors will be manufactured by the pilot plant ultimately using those grains the full
00:04:23 amram 5 rocket motor will be manufactured by the pilot plant and static fire tested elsewhere on site the pursuit of solid rocket motor production on demand and the rocket factory in a box will mobilize fortify and stabilize the us rocket motor supply base
00:04:46 it will provide rapid design and fabrication of customized rockets for any end use requiring specific performance this system will dramatically shorten time to design prototype and acquire new motor designs and improve the safety of manufacturing for those designs [Music]
00:05:05 ultimately the rocket factory in a box can be integrated into a missile factory in a box this eternal quiver will allow for the in-theater production of munitions yielding a constant reliable supply of weapons [Music] you