TWI Experts to Present at ECSSMET 2024

Two experts from TWI are due to present at the ‘European Conference on Spacecraft Structures, Materials and Environmental Testing (ECSSMET 2024)’ this week.

This event, which is organised by the European Space Agency (ESA) is taking place at their ESTEC facility in Noordwijk, The Netherlands from 23-27 September, 2024.

Advanced Manufacturing Engineer, Pedro De Sousa Santos and Friction Welding Project Leader, Sam Holdsworth will present during the ‘ADV-1: Advanced Manufacturing 1- Welding’ session between 8:30 and 10:30 am on Thursday, 26 September, 2024.

Both presentations will detail advanced manufacturing-based innovation and research projects undertaken at TWI.

Sam’s presentation, ‘Latest Innovations in Friction Welding and Processing for Advanced Spacecraft Structure Manufacture,’ will explore key research projects related to advanced friction welding and processing for aerospace manufacture. In particular, the presentation will cover three research topics:

1. Advances in High Temperature Friction Stir Welding (FSW) – The past 30-plus years has seen FSW become well established for the fabrication of light metals such as aluminium. However, despite the benefits of the process, its use for welding high plasticisation point metals such as nickel, titanium and steel has been held back by difficulties in finding a suitable, reliable and commercially-viable tool capable of withstanding the welding environment. This presentation will detail how TWI developed a low-cost, single use tooling system with a replaceable insert, including the motivation behind the development, tool performance and weld properties when welding Ti-6Al-4V plates.
2. Stationary Shoulder-Micro Friction Stir Welding of Thin Liners for Hydrogen Tanks – The storage and transportation of liquid hydrogen (LH2) is vital for the decarbonisation of the transport sector. However, significant research and development is required to mature LH2 storage solutions to make this the fuel of choice for transportation in the first half of this century. The most promising and safest pressure vessel type for this application is a thin walled aluminium vessel liner with a carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) overlay, which could offer a lightweight solution for storing LH2. This presentation will detail the development of a stationary shoulder-micro friction stir welding (SS-μFSW) procedure for the manufacture of aluminium liners with sub-millimetre thickness.
3. Friction Stir Channelling Innovation for Aerospace Thermal Management – This research project revolves around a new FSW-based, sub-surface machining technique called CoreFlow®, which was recently invented at TWI. This is an efficient alternative manufacturing process for thermal management systems, leading to industrial interest in manufacturing unique novel heat exchangers, such as complex 3D pulsating heat pipes for spacecraft. This part of the presentation will detail how recent collaborative research has yielded an easily adoptable equipment solution to enable industry adoption of the process. This included the creation of a demonstrator that showed a significant reduction in raw material input, component mass, and total cycle time, as well as showing improved thermal efficiency with respect to benchmark samples manufactured with traditional methods. In addition, the demonstrator plate survived pressures far higher than specification, with burst pressure exceeding 450bar and low component distortions (below 0.5mm).

Pedro’s presentation, ‘LFW of External Features on Spacecraft Structures,’ will detail ongoing project work that is being undertaken by TWI alongside the ESA and Airbus Defence and Space UK. This presentation builds upon past work using Linear Friction Welding (LFW) to manufacture external features like reinforcement ribs, bosses or mounting brackets in critical aerospace structures. This technique reduces buy-to-fly ratios and increases the design flexibility without increasing weight or joint thickness as is the case with fusion welding, mechanical fastening or adhesive bonding. The ongoing project is now seeking to support the development and qualification of an LFW based manufacturing route for a spacecraft structure, with a focus on the redesign of a propellant management device as the target application. The presentation will offer some background to this work as well as detailing the results of LFW trials, non-destructive testing validation and the creation of a full-scale technology demonstrator that enabled the fulfilment of the requirements for Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6.

About ECSSMET 2024

The goal of the European Conference on Spacecraft Structures, Materials and Environmental Testing is to promote discussion and the exchange of experience between the mechanical engineering community on topics related to structures and structural materials for spacecraft, launchers and payloads including design, development, assembly, integration, verification, and environmental testing.

You can see the full event programme for ECSSMET 2024, here and find out more about the event, here.

We look forward to seeing those who are in attendance at the event this week, but if you have any questions about the work of TWI and how it may help your organisation, please contact us using the email address below.