Selective Laser Melting of a 1U CubeSat structure. Design for Additive Manufacturing and assembly

Abstract

The aerospace industry has used Additive Manufacturing (AM) since its beginnings in the ‘80s because of its unique capabilities. The present work shows a re-designing and the manufacturing via AM of the structural sub-system of a CubeSat from the nanosatellite class. Specifically, a 1U CubeSat design proposal has been developed according to Design for Additive Manufacturing (DFAM) guidelines, considering the consolidation of the parts for reducing and/or avoiding the assembly issues. A configuration made of only two parts has been successfully fabricated via Selective Laser Melting (SLM) technology. AM capabilities allowed to integrate a hinge mechanism in the design, making the resulting structure an already-assembled one. Moreover, the design exhibits snap-fit features in order to get rid of fasteners. The increased complexity of the parts due to the integration of the additional snap-fit features results in no manufacturing issues due to the AM capability to manage shape complexity. This work points AM out as a key technology allowing for a drastic reduction of the part count for a mechanical system, taking Design for Assembly (DFA) guidelines to the extreme. It underlines the need to consider AM-related constrains already in the design phase, such as the clearance and the shape of the hinge and the snap joint matching SLM specific constraints such as support structures design and removal planning, part orientation in the building platform, and hollowing out for powder removal.