ESA Open Invitation To Tender AO8890
Open Date: 12/05/2017
Closing Date: 23/06/2017 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 17.133.01
Prog. Ref.: GSTP Element 1 Dev
Budget Ref.: E/0904-611 – GSTP Element 1 Dev
Special Prov.: BE+DE+CH+GB+LU
Tender Type: C
Price Range: 200-500 KEURO
Products: Satellites & Probes / Mechanisms / Mechanisms / Instrument specific mechanisms
Techology Domains: Mechanisms / Mechanism Engineering / Engineering Tools
Establishment: ESTEC
Directorate: Directorate of Tech, Eng. & Quality
Department: Mechanical Engineering Department
Division: Structure and Mechanisms Division
Contract Officer: Strzelecki, Patryk Michal
Industrial Policy Measure: N/A – Not apply
Last Update Date: 12/05/2017
Update Reason: Tender issue

Compliant mechanisms (e.g. flexural joints) are applied where the relative motion of parts can be accomplished without using traditional bearings. Slender structurescan be properly arranged to provide functions like accurate guiding, speed reduction, or change of motion direction. Compared to traditional mechanisms using bearings, significant improvements are expected. These include a decrease of part count number, frictionless motion transmission, which decreases losses,higher motion ranges, enhanced stiffness, and improved accuracy due to the avoidance of backlash.The complex monolithic shapes require highly sophisticated manufacturing methods. Traditional techniques like Electro-Discharge-Machining or machining are hardly applicable. Additive Manufacturing provides exactly these requirements and is seen as a key enabling technology for space. The achievable geometrical complexity is unrivalled today. Furthermore, the technique was matured rapidly over the past years, allowing the manufacturing of fully dense parts withmechanical properties comparable to wrought materials.The activity will consist of the following tasks:- Review of the compliant mechanism design, identifying potential areas which benefit from a re-design for AM.- Optimisation of the selected joints in the compliant mechanism using FEM and CAD methods, taking into account the opportunities and restrictions of Additive Manufacturing.- Development and optimisation of the Additive Manufacturing process for miniaturised flexural joints and verification of the obtained properties by dedicated test campaign at samples level.- Manufacturing and post processing of the optimized components.- Testing of the produced hardware.- Life time capability assessment, as well as assessment of the impact on cost, mass, lead time, efficiency.

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