AFRL researchers pave the way to lighter, faster additively manufactured rocket engines
The Air Force Research Laboratory, or AFRL, Rocket Propulsion Division, recently designed, printed, built and hot fired a first-ever, single-block rocket-engine thrust chamber additively manufactured using a process called laser powder directed energy deposition, or DED. DED is an additive manufacturing process in which the device injects metal powder into focused beams of high-power laser in highly controlled atmospheric conditions. The Hotfire of the thrust chamber is shown in the Experimental Cell 1 (EC-1) at the AFRL Rocket Lab. (U.S. Air Force photo)