The proposed program will demonstrate the ability to rapidly design and manufacture extremely high stiffness-to-weight precision structures for aerospace applications. Nu-Cast, Inc. currently has a patent pending on a process that uses rapid prototyping methodology, based on the Stereolithography (SLA) process, together with in-house variants of modern ceramic investment casting (requiring no complex hard tooling) to produce small high efficiency 3-D truss-like structures. Existing SLA technology limited this process to 0.5 m dimensions, whereas many applications require platform structures of larger size. Our preliminary work shows that scale-up is possible without loss of structural performance. The Nu-Cast process provides up to 130X improvement in stiffness-to-weight over a same-size plate of equal mass for such structures as instrument mounting platforms and optical benches. Furthermore, since investment casting produces an entire structure at once, to near net shape, the monolithic cast part reduces cost by eliminating much of the labor used in design and assembly of multiple pieces and machined parts. The Phase II program will produce a demonstration item, currently designed for conventional manufacture, using the Nu-Cast production process. The sample's structural performance will validate the capability of the process and confirm the performance predictions generated during the Phase I preliminary design and analysis effort.
Potential Commercial Applications:The most critical applications of the Nu-Cast 3D truss structures are in areas requiring high efficiency, minimum-weight structures, including satellites (communication and sensor-carrying), aircraft and instrumentation support benches. The estimated performance and cost improvement of this process over conventional manufacture is expected to result in rapid acceptance in the commercial and Government-based aerospace markets, whose aggregate value for structures of this type is measured in millions of dollars.
