Additively Manufactured Hermetically Sealed Isolation Valve

This effort leverages a 2012/2013 TIPS program partnership between MSFC and GSFC. A new isolation valve design will be fabricated via Additive Manufacturing. This technique will greatly simplify the valve design and hence increase reliability. Incorporation of curved internal fluid pathways and an integrated multiplier arm are now possible. This will allow the use of magnetorestrictive materials to provide millisecond actuation. A key deliverable is prototype testing in August of 2016.

This technology could be expanded to other applications such as a high-pressure gas valve. The actuator could easily be used on a normally open pyrovalve replacement. Multiple vendors have an expressed interest in this technology. There is potential for a partnership with these companies to further develop the technology or simply license the technology to these interested parties. Currently, the only permanent valve qualified for spaceflight in the aerospace industry is the pyrovalve. The pyrovalve uses redundant pyrotechnic chargers called NASA Standard Initiators (NSI) for actuation. The charges rupture a parent metal seal, permanently opening the valve. Due to the flammability of most storable propellant, valve failure may result in unintended combustion and lead to catastrophic failure of the spacecraft. Therefore, the reliability of the component is crucial. Past NASA mission have had issues with pyrovalve failure during qualification testing, which adds significant cost to the procurement of the component. In addition to the failures, it is desirable to maintain multiple sources for component competition, though only one vendor exists for these valves. Maturing any AM produce spacecraft propulsion component has great benefits for the entire industry. This project would assist the effort of legitimizing AM components for the industry, demostrating its capabilities of providing fully-functional, low-cost, state-of-the-art components.The obvious benefit of AM or DMLS compared to conventional machining is its ability to produce the complex components that make the valve functionally possible and far simpler and cheaper to produce, i.e. curved internal flow paths, nested internal features, and integrated parts compared to multiple parts for conventional machining. The cost of the components that are manufacturable with conventional techniques is well over when considering the raw material and machining costs, compared to near waistless AM produced equivalent. This AM cost drops further when additional units are printed simultaneously, whereas the conventional machining cost per unit does not change with the order quantity.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 4) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.