Additive manufacturing is an innovative way of producing 3D parts without mould or specific tooling. This layer by layer technique allows to produce complex geometries such as lattice structures and thin walls. This kind of structure can be lighter than massy structures made by machining or foundry. Space industry is highly interested in lightweighted parts since 1 gram of material costs approximately 15 000€ to launch into orbit.
Since additive manufacturing companies like POLY-SHAPE use metallic alloys which suits technical constraints of spatial products like telescopes, it is now possible to imagine and design complex and light geometries for space applications. One of the cutting edge company in space industry, THALES ALENIA SPACE, faces now the challenge of designing such complex geometries with their usual and traditional methods.

Altair solidThinking Inspire enables design engineers, product designers and architects to create and investigate structurally efficient concepts quickly and easily. Traditional structural simulations allow engineers to check if a design will support the required loads. Inspire assists this process by generating a new material layout within a package space using the loads as an input. The software is easy to learn and works with existing CAD tools to help design structural parts right the first time, reducing costs, development time, material consumption and product weight.

The Challenge

In order to contribute to imagine the next Thales telescope, we challenge you to design the best telescope structure, respecting the given technical constraints. The most relevant proposition among your submissions will be manufactured as a prototype and will be part of the next development of the Thales’s researches. You will be awarded for that contribution by all the partners : POLY-SHAPE, THALES ALENIA SPACE, ALTAIR. Exhibition of your part, guided tours, internship or probationary period for a potential position, software licenses and tablet, all good ideas will be recognized.

With the support of ALTAIR softwares, we challenge you to work out original methods of conducting a calculation and a 3D design which match the targeted specifications.

Participating to the MAKE IT LIGHT ! challenge implies full and unconditional acceptance on CONTEST RULES (Click here to download the general conditions).
To Participate, just fill out the CONTEST RULES Sheet and send it to Sylvie Launay slaunay@altair.com to receive the entire case-study and the whole presentation of the contest.