Fraunhofer ILT highlights a gantry-based PBF-LB rocket engine manifold for ArianeGroup
June 19, 2025
Researchers at Fraunhofer ILT, Aachen, Germany, have successfully additively manufactured a Ø720 x 100 mm³ Ni718 rocket engine manifold on its gantry-based Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB) AM machine. The five-laser machine, featuring a 1.0 x 0.8 x 0.4 m³ build volume, produced the component in a non-stop 218-hour session.
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Funded by the European Commission, the manifold was produced for ArianeGroup, Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, under the scope of the ENLIGHTEN (European iNitiative for Low-cost, Innovative & Green High Thrust ENgine) project. ENLIGHTEN aims to develop cost-reduced technologies for space transportation systems (STS) and increase European competitiveness in that market.
“Although this marks the successful demonstration of large-scale PBF-LB/M processing in the ENLIGHTEN project, there is more to come,” Niklas Prätzsch, Group Manager LPBF – Process & Systems Engineering, wrote in a LinkedIn post. “Our DED colleagues will finalise the nozzle extension section of the final demonstrator in a hybrid approach.”
Led by ArianeGroup, other ENLIGHTEN project partners include: AIKO, Aerospace Propulsion Products BV, Areelis Technologies, AVIO, AZO Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Edgise, ERNEO, Fraunhofers IGCV and ILT, IREPA LASER, KU Leuven, Laser Cladding Venture nv, ONERA – The French Aerospace Lab, Proekspert AS, and Silicon Austria Labs (SAL).
