At this year's EuroMold, which will take place from the 25th to the 28th of November 2014, companies from different industrial production sectors will present collaborative projects that perceptibly demonstrate the added value of synergies for the partners involved. The development of a new antenna carrier for an earth observation satellite will be one of the highlights at the trade fair, which proves the success of such cooperation and shows by example how design and development exploit the true potential of additive manufacturing when exploring new ways.
As part of the pilot project, RUAG, Altair and EOS cooperated in the development of a new antenna section for the Sentinel 1 satellite and developed a revised mounting that was optimised for production in an industrial 3D printing process. The objective was to make the new aluminium component much lighter while keeping keeping its strength, and to make the best use possible of the design freedom that the additive manufacturing process offers. As a result, the finished component is almost only half the weight of the previous component and at the same time considerably more rigid. In space navigation, weight saving in particular is a decisive factor, because the lighter a satellite, the more cost effective it can be launched into space.
