ESA Open Invitation To Tender
AO7419

Title:    1B.079 – ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING FOR TELECOMMUNICATION SATELLITES
Open Date:    11/02/2013
Closing Date:    08/04/2013

Status:    ISSUED
Reference Nr.:    12.1TF.23Prog. Ref.:    ARTES 1-V
Budget Ref.:    E/0501-01A – ARTES 1-V
Special Prov.:    B+DK+F+D+I+NL+E+S+CH+GB+IRL+A+N+FIN+PL+POR+RO+GR+LUX+CZ+CDN
Proc. Prop:    NO
Tender Type:    C
Price Range:    100-200 KEURO
Keywords:    Manufacturing
Establishment:    ESTEC
Directorate:    Directorate Telecom & Integrated Applica
Department:    Telecom Technologies,Product&Systems Dep
Division:    Future Projects Division
Contract Officer:    Claudia Ria Piesche
Last Update Date:    11/02/2013
Update Reason:    Tender issueAdditive manufacturing (AM) is defined as the “process of joining materials to make objects from 3D model data, usually layer upon layer, as opposed to subtractive manufacturing methodologies, such as traditional machining. The Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies are maturing rapidly for metallic and polymer materials. Functional parts made by using AM are spreading in all sectors of industry.The materials that can be processed are polymers, metals, composites and some ceramics. The design, manufacturing and optimization of the shape of new parts using these materials/processes are reduced in time and customized to the specific use. The AM technologies allow creating shapes with a great degree of freedom directly from CAD files. The dimensions of the parts can range from few millimetres up to few meters. It can also provide significant schedule improvement as complex shapes can be manufactured without significantly impacting a standardized production flow. This freedom in design could be used also to release constraints in the logistics of telecommunication satellites. The packaging of sub-systems, the ground support equipment, the dummy masses, the interface brackets to test equipment and many elements of the satellite could be obtained more quickly or at lower cost or with improved performances by using these manufacturing technologies. The purpose of this activity is thus with a scope limited to telecommunicationsatellite platforms – (1) to analyze the applicability of AM technologies for the production of different systems and subsystems of telecommunications missions and (2) to assess the benefit on cost savings, potential assembly, integration time and mass savings at systemlevel. To this aim, the activity shall as minimum: (1) Define reference / use cases of systems and of sub-systems for which the proposed technique is to be evaluated as well as the corresponding criteria: production costs and schedule, mass, reliability, both space segment and ground support equipment (dummy masses, shall be addressed; (2) Review the corresponding manufacturing and testing process(es) and assess the performance for the existing process for the existing process and metrics; (3) Propose methods and identify processes with AM; (4) Evaluate the metrics for the references cases when using the AM; (5) Provide a complete cost benefitanalysis for the reference cases; (6) provide guidelines for the specification and design of the new parts; (7) Propose a detailed technology development roadmap for future telecommunication satellites, identifying return on investments; (8) Identify players from ESA member states and Canada that could play a role in implementing the proposed roadmaps.

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