Case Study: Rocket Crafters achieves 97.5% run-to-run consistency, 50% lower unit costs and 60% faster lead times with Stratasys FDM Technology

Hybrid Rocket Engines Use Additive Manufacturing to Combine the Advantages of Solid and Liquid Propellants

Rocket Crafters needed a way to make high-performance hybrid rocket fuel grains that avoided the defects, high variability, long lead times and scaling limits of traditional casting. To do this the company evaluated additive manufacturing and selected Stratasys’ Fortus 3D Production Systems platform (using ABS thermoplastic and FDM Technology) to produce accurately detailed, CAD-driven fuel grains for its D-DART™ hybrid motors.

Using Stratasys Fortus systems to 3D‑print ABS fuel grains—combined with CAD-driven composite filament winding for the motor case—Rocket Crafters achieved dramatic improvements: unit production costs estimated ~50% lower, delivery times ~60% faster, and run-to-run consistency of 97.5% versus 87% for cast HTPB grains, while delivering comparable specific impulse; Rocket Crafters plans flight testing and commercialization based on this Stratasys-enabled process.

Rocket Crafters

Ron Jones

President and Chief Technology Officer