Recently, Firefly, a launch vehicle and spacecraft manufacturer, announced that it will start producing large-scale fiber composite parts for the composite rocket Alpha through automatic fiber placement (AFP) additive manufacturing technology from 2021. The AFP system Firefly will install is provided by Ingersoll.
Automated production of fiber composite materials
According to Firefly, the upcoming AFP technology is now widely used in the aircraft industry. This type of equipment can produce very large-scale composite structures using additive manufacturing, and its application has been developed and verified by the aircraft industry.
Firefly will use the first AFP system for Alpha rocket manufacturing in May 2021. The second AFP system will be installed in another factory in 2022 and is expected to produce 24 Alpha rockets per year. The factory where the first AFP system was installed will then be changed to develop a larger rocket.
According to the AFP system supplier Ingersoll, once fully operational, the AFP additive manufacturing system installed by Firefly will produce all the carbon fiber structures of the Alpha rocket within 14 days, including the barrel, fairing, dome and Payload components.
The AFP additive manufacturing process will bring many benefits to Firefly, including reducing composite material waste by 30-50%, improving repeatability, reducing labor and manufacturing time, and achieving customized and optimized structures, and further reducing component costs Weight and overall cost.
Increase payload and keep weight light
The original Alpha was an all-composite rocket with a diameter of 6 feet and a payload capacity of 300 to 500 kg. After the company reorganized, Firefly decided to use a new version of the launch vehicle-Alpha 2.0, which aims to increase the payload and meet the needs of medium-sized satellites launched into low earth orbit (LEO).
Firefly has been designing, manufacturing, testing and appraising the quality of Alpha 2.0 rockets for the past three years. Since most rocket manufacturing standards and qualification documents are formulated for metal rockets, there is little experience with composite rockets. But in any case, Firefly has composite material design and manufacturing experience, and increases Alpha's payload capacity without increasing the diameter and keeps the overall weight low, composite rockets seem to be a better choice.
The Alpha 2.0 rocket with a height of 29 meters consists of a two-stage structure. Above the rocket is the newly enlarged payload section, which consists of a carbon fiber composite payload fairing with a diameter of 2 meters (6.6 feet), covering the payload storage area. Below the payload fairing, the rocket’s cylinder is divided into two stages: the second stage, that is, directly below the payload fairing is a smaller stage with a height of 6 meters (19.7 feet). The first stage, located at the bottom of the rocket, is 18 meters (59.1 feet). Both stages include an outer composite airframe with internal oxygen, fuel and helium tanks and avionics systems. The first stage was designed to launch the rocket from the ground into space, but it was eventually separated from the second stage, which carried the payload into low earth orbit.