6K Additive Partners with Agile Space Industries to Advance Mission to the Moon
6K Additive’s Nickel 625 powder is being qualified for use in Agile’s A2200 engine due to being part of a mission to the moon.
Pittsburgh, PA, and Durango, CO, August 29, 2023 – 6K Additive, a division of 6K Inc. and leader in the sustainable production of materials for additive manufacturing, and Agile Space Industries (Agile), in-space propulsion specialists have announced that Agile is pursuing certification of 6K Additive-produced Ni625 powder for customer space applications including critical rocket parts.
6K Additive’s Ni625 powder is being certified for use at Agile’s manufacturing facility. The first parts to be produced will be used in Agile’s A2200 bipropellant hypergolic engine. The engines are powered by a pressure-fed hypergolic bipropellant, which does not require ignition as the hydrazine derivative fuel, M20, and MON3 oxidizer combust on contact. Leveraging additive manufacturing, the engine was designed to weigh just 5.9kg and produce 500-lbf of thrust, underscoring the benefits of lightweighting with AM while delivering tremendous power.
Kyle Metsger, Director of Additive Technology at Agile, explained:
“By weight, 85% of our engine components are additively manufactured, meaning we rely heavily on AM powders that can withstand the extreme temperatures and forces generated during take-off and flight. 6K Additive allows us to additively manufacturer using high-quality powders that are required for our critical applications, while also helping us meet our environmental goals through their recycling program and sustainably manufactured powders. 6K Additive can deliver extremely consistent powder that allows our production line to run the long build times required for these complex components.”
Traditional development cycles for aerospace components can be more than two decades. However, by harnessing the speed and flexibility of AM, Agile is able to compress development time down to 12 months.
“A year-long development cycle still sounds like a very long time in many industries, but we are showing the primes in the aerospace industry what the future looks like. Moving to the larger TruPrint 5000 machine gave us the ability to qualify the new parameters for the machine and material simultaneously. In this way, AM allows us to be ‘Agile’ in name and practice,” continued Kyle Metsger.
Agile’s A2200 engines will be used on a Lunar lander vehicle. The A2200 engine was developed to provide maximum performance on demanding missions, with a specific impulse of more than 318 seconds. Using an integral pintle sleeve throttling mechanism, the engine is capable of deep throttling, providing a smooth ride and fine control for a variety of missions. The engine can throttle from 50 to 100% thrust in under 650 milliseconds. Making it the perfect engine for heavily demanding maneuvering sequences that lunar missions require.
Frank Roberts, President at 6K Additive, commented:
“We are always excited to partner with customers like Agile who leverage our high-quality powders to produce critical rocket parts to land on the moon. The fact that we can enable space exploration while continuing to lead the way with sustainability at home on Earth is the best of both worlds. Agile has a cradle-to-grave mentality around its products, and having 6K Additive supply the company with high-quality, sustainably produced Ni625 and provide an established waste stream to help with its environmental stewardship speaks to our mission of going beyond expectations for our customers.”
About 6K
With sustainability at its core, 6K has developed UniMelt®, a proprietary advanced microwave plasma production system, to transform engineered materials into revolutionary products that advance industries across additive manufacturing, renewable energy, aerospace, consumer electronics, and more. 6K represents 6000 degrees, both the temperature of the operation of UniMelt®, the world’s only microwave production scale plasma system and the temperature of the sun’s surface. 6K was founded in North Andover, Massachusetts.
The 6K Energy division is focused on the production of low-cost, sustainable, and domestically produced battery material accelerating the pace of battery production and adoption of electric vehicles. The 6K Additive division specializes in sustainably sourced, AM metal powders production and reclamation, using a proprietary milling and cleaning process that ensures contamination-free, high-quality powders. For more information, visit www.6Kinc.com.
About Agile Space Industries
Agile Space Industries (http://www.agilespaceindustries.com) is an in-space propulsion solution provider, specializing in hypergolic chemical systems. Agile has industry leading expertise in the design of chemical-propulsion rocket thrusters. Rapid prototyping, development, qualification, and delivery is catalysed by in-house additive manufacturing and engine test capability. The company employs more than 65 people between facilities in Durango, Colorado and Mount Pleasant, PA that specialize in component, system development, test and additive manufacturing. Agile is working with numerous primes as well as the US Government on various spacecraft and launch vehicle propulsion projects.
