Ursa Major has received additional funding from America Makes, an organization that aims to accelerate U.S. manufacturing competitiveness through the adoption of additive manufacturing (AM).
Ursa Major and America Makes initiated their relationship in 2021 with the establishment of the Ursa Major Advanced Manufacturing Lab in Youngstown, Ohio. The Lab created an AM capability for NASA-developed, copper-chrome-niobium alloy GrCop-42, with Ursa Major’s first, large-scale, 3D printer, and produced prototype thrust chambers for the vacuum variant of the Hadley liquid rocket engine.
Under a new agreement, Ursa Major and America Makes will continue their partnership through mid-2024 and transition from printing prototypes to printing production and engine qualification hardware, including combustion chambers for the vacuum variant of Ursa Major’s Hadley liquid rocket engine.
GRCop-42, part of a family of NASA-developed alloys, is used in high-heat applications such as liquid rocket engine combustion devices because of its high conductivity and strength. AM, or 3D printing, allows Ursa Major to speed up engine production and apply improvements gleaned from testing in real time, which results in lower costs. Ursa Major’s rocket engines are more than 80 percent 3D-printed by mass.
“Our Advanced Manufacturing Lab is critical to Ursa Major’s additive manufacturing capabilities, which accelerate engine production timelines. With our resources in Youngstown, we can reduce the production and delivery cycle for combustion chambers from six months to one month.”— Brad Appel, Chief Technology Officer, Ursa Major
“Ursa Major has been a great addition to our Youngstown ecosystem. We are excited to continue our collaboration on improving producibility and lead time reduction of defense industrial base relevant parts.” — John Wilczynski, Executive Director, America Makes.
