Five-Axis Additive Manufacturing of a Thermoset Composite Formulation for Thermal Protection Systems

Thermal protection systems (TPS) are employed on space vehicles to protect against the heat fluxes faced upon re-entry to the Earth’s atmosphere. This work reports a method of 3D printing composite materials for TPS to reduce the time and cost associated with hand layup production methods. A phenolic resin system was tested to determine char yield, viscosity, cure behavior and cure evolutions. A commercial 3D printer was modified to move along two additional axes to accommodate the complex curves of typical heat shields on space vehicles. This technique can be scaled to produce full-sized TPS for industrial applications.