PAGE CONTENTS
Objectives
The main objectives of the activity are:
- Research and trade-off antenna reflector moulding techniques and tooling methods that could be applied with the aim of reducing cost and lead time.
- Characterise the selected materials of the mould within the temperature and pressure range of interest.
- Develop the selected tooling method and provide a mould for the manufacture of an Engineering Model of a Ku-band antenna reflector.
- Carry out the reflector EM manufacturing and testing, comprising thermal cycling with thermal distortion measurement and mechanical loading.
Challenges
A comparison of the performances of the two reflectors (one manufactured with standard technology, the second manufactured with new technology) gave the possibility to evaluate the new mould
Plan
A first step of activities consisted of the description of the actual status of mould technology and reflector manufacturing technology.
An antenna manufactured using traditional technologies was selected to be a reference for performances comparison.
An exhaustive state-of-the-art study concerning the moulding technology was prepared to provide a panoramic view of possible technologies.
A specification for mould procurement was prepared.
The design phase went through preliminary and refined analyses up to the delivery of mould manufacturing documentation.
The mould was manufactured and tested
Current Status
The new mould technology can be used for reflector manufacturing provided that care is used for release agent selection and application.
