Test firing of 3D-printed rocket engine

This rocket test firing was part of a collaboration between Airborne Engineering, Alloyed (formerly Oxmet) and Renishaw. This is a bi-propellant liquid rocket engine. The propellants are nitrous oxide (oxidiser) and isopropyl alcohol (fuel.) The combustion chamber is 3D printed on a Renishaw metal 3D printing machine from Alloyed's ABD-900AM material, which is similar to Inconel, but optimised for additive manufacture.

The engine is cooled by water and the cooling channels are heavily instrumented with pressure transducers and thermocouples to help us validate in-house software codes for predicting heat transfer in the engine.

The firing took place at Airborne's J1 test facility at Westcott Venture Park, site of the former Rocket Propulsion Establishment in Buckinghamshire, England.

Links to collaborators:

[SiriusBern]

Cool, and your ignition sequence is well worked out!

[owenkegg]

That sounds nice and runs smooth as hell!

[bradcogan]

Awesome. Definitely need a more in depth video on this engine.

[yokowan]

she sings! such a cool video, those mach diamonds are beautiful!

[DangerousStuffEJP]

Freind: walks into garage

You: yeah so this is where I store my rocket engines

Friend: ...

[fracturedgamer]

It's getting there. Keep it up, and awesome job.

[franceshsueh]

Around what was the diameter for the throat and the exit?

[blaklite]

Im sure you lot work really hard but accelerate your testing ✨💫 only a matter of time 🚀