Ceramic Propellant Injectors Designed and Fabricated

Ceramic propellant injectors offer the potential for order-of-magnitude weight reductions in comparison to conventional metallic injectors and may enable some NASA missions. Injectors constructed of ceramic materials have the inherent advantages of being lighter weight, more erosion resistant, and capable of higher temperature operation than current metallic designs. The use of ceramics may facilitate new designs for a broad range of combustion devices in aero and space applications. In a joint project involving NASA Glenn Research Center's Ceramics and Combustion branches and Case Western Reserve University, a rocket propellant injector faceplate was designed and fabricated using laminated object manufacturing and standard ceramic processing. A number of faceplates have been successfully hot-fire bench tested.