Additive manufacturing (AM) has enabled new and significant design and manufacturing opportunities for rocket-engine components with complex internal features and thin walls. NASA’s successes include bimetallic AM using a laser powder-bed fusion copper-alloy liquid rocket-engine combustion chamber with an AM electron-beam freeform Inconel 625 structural jacket. Technology has rapidly advanced to a larger-scale demonstrator in less than five months, which validates the printing of key features such as the integral coolant channels and thin walls while minimizing distortion.

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