The Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) has announced a new joint venture with the Luxembourg company, Gradel, to research and produce ultralight structures for the aerospace industry. The components will be made for the European satellite-building giants Thales Alenia (France), Airbus Defence and Space (France), and OHB (Germany).

In space and satellites, weight is expensive. The heavier the product used for space transportation, the higher the cost. Current estimates range from $5,000 to $10,000 per kilogram, meaning any weight loss could benefit companies launching satellites into space.

The goal of the new partnership is to produce very strong but ultralight structures using continuous carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) in the filament winding process to create ultralight 3D structures.

Carbon fiber is coated with a polymer that solidifies the whole thing, making it extremely strong and elastic. The impregnated carbon fiber winding forms an optimized 3D mesh design that gives part of its unique mechanical properties.

Two projects will be carried out at the LIST-Gradel laboratory. The first, called“Xfkin 3D,” will include hand-made parts and hand-woven filaments. It will be targeted at the model standard for space utilization of structural components produced by xfkin 3D technology.

The second project, called“Robotised xfkin 3D”, will be the challenge of producing the same parts as the first, but using a new robotic arm recently installed on the LIST to make it a fully automated manufacturing process, ensures excellent repeatability, with the same strength and quality, but on a larger scale.

The parts produced will be used for all antenna brackets and satellite equipment brackets. At present, many of these parts are metal and therefore relatively heavy. The aim is to get rid of the metal parts and use the new technology from Luxembourg-based LIST and Gradel to achieve up to 75 percent weight loss, saving the company considerable costs.

Both projects are supported by Luxembourg's national space program, LuxIMPULSE, which aims to provide funding to help Luxembourg-based companies bring innovative ideas to market. The program is jointly managed by the Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA) and EuropeanpSpacepAgencye(ESA).