JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #122 - July 2018 - 35

Successful mission of TuPOD, a TubeSats deployer manufactured via additive manufacturing

using these technologies holds promise
for both metals and plastics, whereas traditional subtractive manufacturing technologies can be restrictive in terms of design
development and material selection.
Additive manufacturing is often faster than
designing and producing a tool for traditional manufacturing technologies. Furthermore, 3D printing has given engineers
more flexibility along the development
timeline to make design improvements
and to think outside of the limitations
caused by traditional tooling. This choice
made it possible to substantially reduce the
costs and proved very convenient in terms
of timing when compared to traditional
production methods. The unique properties of the AM Windform® XT 2.0 material enabled system optimizations that
successfully met the design requirements
due to space limitations and the extreme
conditions of the launch. The successful
TuPOD mission marks a great example of
both scientific advance and international
cooperation.

TuPOD needed to be designed like a 3U
CubeSat, parallelepiped but able to hold
two TubeSats 89mm diameter x 127mm
long while using the CubeSat launch infrastructure on the ISS (Figure 2). An interface had to be created between the TubeSat
cylindrical structure and the 3U CubeSat
parallelepiped structure. This was possible
through the use of additive manufacturing
and the Windform® XT2.0 material.
Thanks to this specific kind of deployer,
two TubeSats were released into space for

the first time. To date, there was not any
launch possibility for this class of small satellites. The TuPOD project created a new
and affordable launch opportunity for the
users of this new type of satellite.
Another issue to address was the creation
of a special shape for electronics. Originally, the plan was to use PocketQube
electronic boards developed by Morehead
State University, KY, USA (Figure 3). But
the problem was the complexity of wiring
between multiple boards in such a compact space. Tetonsys took advantage of the
electronic layout used in the PocketQube
electronic boards and created a single
board (Figures 4) that offered the same
performance but in a smaller area placed at
the lower side of the TuPOD.
In TuPOD, the satellite bus design was
complex but simple to manufacture since
the part could be produced straight from
a 3D CAD file, with no tooling required.
By utilizing additive manufacturing technology, a 3D CAD model is designed on
the computer and then "printed" in 3D. To
optimize the part for the final use case, design changes can be made and the part can
be produced (or printed) again and again
with little concern for casting, as no tooling or secondary machinery are necessary.
While the challenge of designing and manufacturing the mothership (TuPOD) as a
single part was addressed with the use of
additive technology, the next step was to
find a material that could meet the rigid
mechanical properties required for space
applications. A variety of additive technologies available on the market could
produce the TuPOD design, however, the

Fig. 3: Special electronics integration and design
(Courtesy of Tetonsys)

material properties were too weak and inconsistent with the density of the fused
structure.
Carbon fibre-reinforced composite
During the evaluation process and design
review, GAUSS opted for Windform® XT
2.0, a strong, highly functional material
specifically designed for additive manufacturing using laser sintering technology,
with application in the aerospace industry
(Figure 4).
Windform® XT 2.0 is a machinable, electrically conductive material. During the
prototyping phase and even the final manufacturing, there were multiple situations
where the team had to drill the part or
make small modifications to the 3D printed structure and this was possible with
Windform® XT 2.0.
The TuPOD project represented clear
challenges for CRP USA and the additive
manufacturing technology. At the same
time, manufacturing such a design without the CRP material and manufacturing

Fig. 4: Final design of TuPOD using Windform XT
2.0 (Courtesy of Tetonsys)

N°122 July 2018

/ jec composites magazine

Feature Aerospace

Stringent requirements had to be met
when building the mothership. TuPOD is
a 3U CubeSat satellite fully 3D printed out
of Windform® XT 2.0 by CRP USA, with
four external anodized aluminium rails
(40% the weight of an equivalent aluminium structure). The deployment device
for most CubeSats is called a P-Pod. This
device is square and can only deploy structures that fit within its constraining devices
that are the four corners. The rails placed
on TuPOD were there in part to allow a
round peg to fit properly in the square hole.

Fig. 2: Initial design of TuPOD
(Courtesy of Tetonsys)

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #122 - July 2018