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Additively Manufactured Bipropellant Rocket Engines
ARC is taking traditional engine design methods into the future. Utilizing artificial intelligence, ARC designs mission-specific engines tailored to the needs of the customer. This rapidly iterative design reduces engineering hours required, reducing time, weight, and cost. ARC’s intellectual property describes a biomimetic fuel injection mechanism that reduces pressure loss during fluid flow and improves combustion stability and efficiency. Computational fluid dynamic and finite element simulations can be performed to optimize the geometry of the entire engine prior to manufacturing, providing efficiency improvements that directly lead to dollars saved on and off the launch pad. ARC’s technology allows for robust testing in silico, allowing for more focused testing after printing. Blending design and advanced manufacturing is in ARC’s core. Metal additive manufacturing techniques (DMLS) create opportunities for features impossible to create with traditional machining techniques, such as embedded regenerative cooling channels. Compared to traditional machining, additive manufacturing is economical, fast, lowers the scrap rate, and significantly lessens tolerance error buildup. These benefits allow ARC to provide high-performance, low-cost engines with one-fourth the lead time. This translates to more frequent launches at lower costs to customers, fulfilling ARC’s goal of democratizing access to space.
