JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #141 - July/August 2021 - 42

FEATURE Italian market
for the development of two new satellite
missions (Cimr and Chime), part of the
Copernicus programme for Earth observation.
Ohb Italia, a local company controlled
by the German Ohb Se, will be responsible
for the development and implementation of
an instrument for the two Cimr satellites: a
microwave radiometer equipped with the
largest antenna ever built to date. Recently,
Ohb Italia has also taken on the role of prime
contractor for another ESA mission - Comet
Interceptor - a spacecraft that will launched
and wait for up to three years in space to study
a comet just entering the inner solar system.
Distributors
As far as distributors are concerned, the
Losi Group deserves a specific mention.
Many products were introduced over the
years, such as the syntactic films used in the
production of a wide range of helicopter
blades and paste adhesives such as the EA
9394 AERO, which has also been used for
structural bonding applications for the huge
JPL Nasa aerials produced in Italy by Cospal
Composites S.r.l.
Piedmont: the highest concentration of
Italian aerospace companies
The Piedmont region offers a complete pipeline
of skills and training facilities, as well as an
organized supply chain. Highly-specialized
companies, both in manufacturing and
technical services, make the local aerospace
sector highly competitive on international
markets. Moreover, the region boasts a distinctive
learning and academic environment
that contributes to the training and growth of
technical and managerial resources.
The Piedmont aerospace scenario is further
enriched by the presence of the Piemonte
Aerospace District Association, the Italian
Institute of Technology (IIT), the Center for
Space Human Robotics (CSHR), a spin-off
from the Politecnico of Torino, and by the
core of Italy's space industry together with
the university. For the next space exploration
missions, many of the 280 Piemonte SMEs
are also working on innovative projects such
as the Argomoon, a nanosatellite for deep
space entirely designed and manufactured in
the area. ALTEC, based in Turin, is responsible
for designing, building and operating the
ExoMars 2020 Rover Operations Control
42
jec composites magazine / N°
Fig. 4: Exo Mars (Source: ALTEC)
Center (ROCC), which will be located
inside its facilities (Figure 4).
EC is the national Center of Excellence for
the international supply of engineering and
logistics services to support the operations
and use of the International Space Station,
as well as other orbiting infrastructures and
missions for space exploration.
Additive manufacturing, a revolution
with industrial companies at the centre
Additive manufacturing, crucial for enhancing
productivity, allows for products
with superior performance compared to
traditional manufacturing, with better
material properties, reduced weight and
therefore consumption, a subject very dear to
the aeronautical sector. The additive process
guarantees the design and construction of
components as single pieces and not as a
combination of several parts, with lower production
costs, reduced development times
and higher production yields.
30% of the propulsion system for the
GE-Catalyst aircraft was made with 3D
components from Avio Aero's additive
manufacturing centre (GE Aviation group),
a reference in Italy and around the world
for the design, production and maintenance
of aeronautical components. The Cameri
plant, born from the collaboration with the
Polytechnic of Turin, is one of the most important
European centres entirely dedicated
to additive manufacturing and has a peculiarity:
it is the only one in Europe where the
141 July - August 2021
production of the powders used to make the
products is combined with the 3D printing
process.
The plant partners with the SIAAD, Industria
4.0 and STAMP projects, which aim to
improve the design of aircraft engines. In addition
to producing the TiAl turbine blades
that will be mounted on the new GE9X engine,
the Cameri plant works on the propeller
for the Boeing 777X, an engine in which
Avio Aero plays an important role, being in
charge of designing and manufacturing the
transmission box and the entire low-pressure
turbine module, a process that also includes
assembly.
The transformation of industrial production
processes is only at the beginning and
additive manufacturing is one of the most
promising aspects of this transformation in
progress.
Aerospace in southern Italy
In Campania, many companies have adopted
highly-automated processes or massively use
digital tools in management. In particular,
Avio has set up in Pomigliano D'Arco, and in
other Italian plants, an " intelligent factory " ,
a production site that can continuously
self-improve products and processes through
real-time data collection, transmission and
analysis.
Avio is the main Italian company involved in
the construction of the Vega satellite carrier,
the most innovative space programme currently
underway in Europe. The programme
is funded and managed through the ESA
(European Space Agency). Avio and ASI,
through the ELV company (controlled 70%
and 30%, respectively), are prime contractors
for the development, qualification and production
of the launcher. 65% of the production
takes place in Italy (Colleferro, Rome).
Vega is a 30-metre-high satellite launcher
with a mass of 1,500 kilos in orbit at 700
km (low Earth orbit). The configuration
includes three solid propellant stages and a
liquid propellant final stage.
In a joint effort, NASA and The Boeing Co.
(Chicago,
IL, USA) designed, built and
tested a composite cryotank that, if scaled to
the current size of the space launch system,
would weigh 30% less and cost 25% less than
the aluminium-lithium-based systems in use
today, while being capable of carrying 1,400
Feature Aerospace
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #141 - July/August 2021

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