Steel additive manufacturing has moved from area of interest use to a core manufacturing technique within the area sector, pushed by demand for high-performance, low-mass elements and accelerated satellite tv for pc manufacturing cycles. Burloak Applied sciences, Canada’s largest steel AM contract producer, has invested closely in course of validation to satisfy spaceflight’s stringent necessities. Its vertically built-in capabilities—proprietary warmth remedies, Sizzling Isostatic Urgent (HIP), and superior floor ending—allow manufacturing of flight-critical {hardware} that matches or exceeds conventionally machined elements.
The rise of huge LEO constellations akin to Telesat Lightspeed, Starlink, and Kuiper has disrupted conventional one-off satellite tv for pc manufacturing, creating a necessity for scalable, repeatable manufacturing. AM’s potential to remove tooling, consolidate assemblies, and produce complicated RF elements—akin to waveguides and antennas with optimized inner geometries—has diminished lead instances from months to weeks whereas enhancing efficiency metrics like sign integrity and mass effectivity.
Burloak’s partnership with MDA House exemplifies this shift. The corporate is supplying over 50,000 Ka-band steel AM antennas for MDA’s AURORA software-defined satellites for the Lightspeed constellation. Excessive-performance aluminum and titanium elements are enabling MDA to cut back half counts, optimize mass, and improve RF efficiency.
MDA is scaling its manufacturing to ship two AURORA satellites per day, supported by Burloak’s potential to ramp AM and post-processing throughput in lockstep. This functionality positions AM as a aggressive differentiator within the quickly increasing satellite tv for pc financial system.
Past near-term manufacturing, the subsequent frontier is in-space manufacturing—printing giant buildings in orbit for area stations, lunar habitats, and deep-space missions. This might bypass launch constraints and allow on-site building and restore, growing mission flexibility and decreasing value.
Steel AM has now matured into a necessary aerospace manufacturing expertise, with validated processes, certified supplies, and confirmed flight heritage. Firms integrating AM at scale into their provide chains will acquire velocity, flexibility, and efficiency benefits in a market the place time-to-orbit is more and more vital. For Burloak and MDA, the expertise will not be a aspect functionality—it’s a basis for the way next-generation area {hardware} is constructed.