Innovative Manufacturing Processes

The development of titanium matrix composites (TMC) provides the MDA with an ideal lightweight material for lowering missile inert structure weight; thus, improving performance. This material has the strength of steel at approximately half the weight.One attractive application is the propellant tanks of divert and attitude control systems. The advantage of additional strength over conventional titanium propellant tanks allows decreased weight or higher pressure capability. This proposal combines apromising low-cost TMC approach, one that uses aligned discontinuous TMC wind in a filament wound configuration to provide a lightweight, high-pressure tank. Combining this technology with a promising green propellant approach, the resulting systemprovides higher performance than the conventional hydrazine: +25% on a density impulse basis and 6.7% on an Isp basis. The proposed program will establish the technical feasibility of the proposed concept and provide a detailed system design for Phase IIfabrication. The basic technical feasibility will be demonstrated in the Phase I activity and a full-scale unit fabricated and tested in Phase II. The system will then be marketed to all MDA primes (Boeing, Raytheon & Lockheed) for incorporation in NavyABM and ground-based systems under the spiral development concept. After the concept is successfully tested, it will also have broad application to space launch and commercial satellite ACS markets as the concept is expanded into a bipropellantconfiguration. SBIR or IHPRPT funds will be sought for this transition. The concept ultimately has the potential to replace hydrazine systems for the entire launch and satellite market.