Partnering with EOS - owning rocket engine making end-to-end, in-house
We are humbled to announce that we have partnered with EOS (a global leader in 3d printing) for making our rocket engines — Agnite & Agnilet — fully in-house.
(A quick summary of our 3d printed engines can be found here & here)
Under the MoU we have signed, we will work together with EOS to expand our synergies in the field of 3D printing for our rockets and their subsystems.
We will also install an EOS M400–4 printer in our facilities and will take EOS’ Additive minds technical support in advancing 3d printing of rocket engines all the way to space qualification — one could call it going to TRL 9!
Furthermore, this partnership will also help us conceive innovative manufacturing solutions in using industrial 3D printing technology to directly accelerate our progress towards our mission — designing affordable launch vehicles that drastically reduce launch wait time. EOS would facilitate & support us by providing training, process know-how, and best practices for taking hardware that has worked successfully on the ground & qualifying it for spaceflight.
Thank you, EOS!
We are excited that EOS is willing to be more than just a vendor to Agnikul and is actively involved in educating the industry on widespread adoption of 3d printing as a mainstream manufacturing technique for space technology. Our sincere thanks to Mr. Anand Prakasam, Country Head , EOS India for his support.
Why own a printer?
This 3d printer is the machine that makes our machines! So, yes, of course we are happy to own these!
However, beyond convenience, our 3d printed engines are a key component of our product strategy. Owning a printer in-house would allow Agnikul to own the entire rocket engine-making process from start to finish. This will enable rapid product realization by eliminating other dependencies in engine making.
Finally, besides lean and clean engine realization, this in-house printing ability will allow for quick progress in understanding & developing futuristic materials research — — key foundation stones that will form the bedrock for intellectual property developed in the company.
Taking a leap towards rocket engine production
To the best of our knowledge — rocket engine making using 3d printing still happens in parts, across the world. People do use some 3d printed parts to make engines but then there is an assembly process involved.
However, we have been able to print entire engines as a single product now. By making our engines “single pieces of hardware”, we believe we have removed a lot of the uncertainty and complexity usually associated with 3d printing of products that have to work at extreme temperatures and pressures.
In fact, we have been testing our rocket engines for a while now and we have built sufficient confidence in the ability of this technology to serve our vehicle’s needs.
(Some key test videos: Video 1, Video 2, Video 3).
With these reliable test results and having a printer in-house — we would like to take inspiration from Archimedes’s famous quote & say — “Give us some metal printing powder & a sufficiently large printer, we will give our vehicle a full rocket engine.”
Designed & manufactured by Agnikul, in India.
At Agnikul, we have always believed in the AatmaNirbharBharat vision of India. This partnership with EOS will provide us with a great platform to demonstrate our belief in this vision. Our engines will now be both designed and realized in India and truly be “Made in India, for the world.”
We also share a common vision with EOS in revolutionizing manufacturing by incorporating advanced and innovative technologies in product building and we are humbled to be doing our small part in India in this direction — all of this we believe will allow us to go full throttle towards making AatmaNirbharBharat a reality.
Launch when the customer wants.
3D printing an entire rocket engine in one shot effectively allows for automation of the engine-making process thereby facilitating launch-on-demand. This is a significant step for us in our goal of moving the small satellite launch market towards a customer-centric business model instead of what it is today — a vehicle-centric model. We will continue to strive to make launch vehicles as customizable and as flexible as possible & making engines on-demand is a good starting point in our view.
