Q&A Stratasys
Foster Ferguson, Director of Aerospace, Stratasys
Stratasys joins forces with Lockheed Martin to qualify a space-ready filament material Stratasys, one of the world’s largest 3-D printing companies, is providing baseline material qualification data for Antero 840CN03 filament materials. These materials offer the strength as well as the heat and chemical resistance necessary for additively manufactured parts such as those fabricated for the Orion Crew Module space capsule designed and built by Lockheed Martin. Foster Ferguson, Director of Aerospace for Stratasys, explains how this project impacts future satellite and spacecraft manufacturing efforts.
Satellite Evolution Global
Crispin Littlehales, Global Contributing Editor, Satellite Evolution Group
Q&A 28
Question: How did this project with Lockheed Martin come about and how is it progressing? Foster Ferguson: Stratasys and Lockheed Martin have a deep partnership that has evolved over many years. We work with several divisions, but this project is all about the demands that come with making parts for the space industry. Antero 840CN03 is a material that Stratasys developed specifically for Lockheed and the space industry a few years ago. It is a blended and functionalized PEKK-based high-performance ESD thermoplastic composite material developed specifically for productiongrade Stratasys FDM® 3D printers that meets ESD performance and NASA outgassing requirements. It also exceeds the flame, smoke, and toxicity (FST) characteristics required for aviation applications. We have also done testing from a fatigue standpoint and the data tells us that Antero 840CN03 has about three and a half times greater fatigue resistance than other printed materials. These characteristics are key to Lockheed which used the material on a Stratasys F900® printer to create the hatch cover for the Orion spacecraft. Whenever we develop a new material for our additive manufacturing platform, we take a holistic look at the industry in which the material will function. We consider all the variables to ensure that the new material has the performance, reliability, and repeatability that has earned Stratasys its reputation for excellence over the last 30 years. The baseline material qualification project provides greater comfort and understanding of the material to the engineers who are now integrating additive manufacturing into their design processes. Working on this effort with Lockheed will enable them to push the horizon and take their manufacturing into the next realm. Question: How did you go about collecting and qualifying the data? Foster Ferguson: During the first phase of qualification, a baseline set of
www.satellite-evolution.com | June 2022
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20/06/2022, 10:02
