Jan 5, 2017
Oxford Performance Materials (OPM) announced today that it has been selected by The Boeing Company to manufacture 3D printed structures for the Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, and OPM has begun shipping OXFAB production parts for installation. The Starliner – designed to transport up to seven passengers, or a mix of crew and cargo, to low-Earth orbit destinations such as the International Space Station – is under development in collaboration with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
Founded in 2000, OPM’s focus has been on high performance polymers, and the company has developed a range of unique additive manufacturing solutions utilizing its proprietary OXPEKK polymer formulations and additive manufacturing processes. OPM has also developed high performance additive manufacturing (HPAM™) technologies specially for biomedical, aerospace, and industrial markets. The OXFAB components, which are delivered by OPM’s Aerospace and Industrial group, utilize OPM's HPAM technologies. OXFAB structures offer significant weight and cost reduction that are defined in a set of specified performance attributes in the exhaustive OPM B-Basis database, developed in conjunction with NASA.
This is Boeing's Starliner
Boeing selected OPM as a result of the company’s demonstrated ability to continually produce highly specified aerospace parts that consistently perform in demanding space environments.
“From our earliest discussions with Boeing, they stressed the need to see significant reductions in weight, cost and lead times in order to consider replacing traditional metallic and composite parts with a new technology for their space program,” said Lawrence Varholak, President of OPM Aerospace & Industrial. “We are proud to be developing and delivering OXFAB technology to the highest standards.”
Posted in 3D Printing Materials
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