Overview & Purpose

On the way to develop a spaceshot rocket, there's always the concern of weight. One of the experimental procedures to reduce weight is to use carbon fiber motor cases. Why carbon fiber? It has a higher strength to weight ratio than aluminum. Therefore, a carbon fiber case can provide similar case strength at a lower weight (compared to the aluminum cases we've used in the past).

Winder

After the decision was made to experiment with carbon fiber cases, we understood that we would have to custom-make the cases to fit project needs. We did not have machines to accomplish this task, so we made one. With inspiration from MIT Rocket Team alum Andrew Reilley, we designed a filament winder by modifying Reilley's model.

Development timeline: July 2023-Present

 Requirements:

  • Successful wet wind test (all electronic and software components functioning)
  • evenly distributed filament with clean finish, so that these cases can be used for Project Prometheus (Spaceport America Cup 2024)

Design Decisions:

Filament Materials used:

  • what type of C and epoxy using

Curing Process:

Winding process:

Developing Cases

 

 

 

 

 

Documents

We took inspiration from MIT Rocket Team alum Andrew Reilley's filament winder: https://reilley.net/winder/

 

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