Within the last decade, Additive Manufacturing evolved from a concept merely used for Rapid Prototyping into several reliable manufacturing technologies. Today, especially Laser Powder Bed Fusion is a mature technology that enables innovative design solutions with an exceptional freedom of design that provides benefits regarding performance, delivery times and mass reduction.

In the presentation, OHB’s recently developed spacecraft flight hardware will be presented with a focus on aluminum and titanium alloys. The design process will be demonstrated exemplarily for a recently developed integrated Twin-Mirror with embedded lattice structures. Key challenges during design, manufacturing, and post-processing are addressed. The presentation features an outlook on requirements and regulations for process verification and AM space hardware qualification following the standards of the European Cooperation for Space Standardization (ECSS).

In a nutshell, the audience will understand the innovative potential of AM and OHB's motivation to use Laser Powder Bed Fusion for spacecraft manufacturing. The presented flight hardware items illustrate the specific advantages of the technology compared to conventional solutions.