An AEHF spacecraft at Lockheed Martin’s facility in Sunnyvale, Calif. Photo: Lockheed Martin

A Remote Interface Unit, an aluminum electronic enclosure designed to hold avionic circuits, will be the first 3-D printed part certified for use on a Lockheed Martin military satellite. The unit will be used on the U.S. Air Force’s sixth Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF 6) satellite.

By going from multiple machined parts to one 3-D printed part, the team was able to save time in the design and production cycle, as well as increase the quality and consistency of the units, according to the compamy. The lead time for manufacturing the part went from six months to only one and a half months, with assembly time also being reduced from 12 hours to just three hours.

The qualified part onboard AEHF 6 was built using a process called Laser Powder Bed Fusion additive manufacturing, in which a laser melts and fuses aluminum metal powder layer-by-layer to build a part based on a digital design. The electronic enclosure will serve as a model for use on other programs that are designed using the A2100 satellite bus.

AEHF is a global military satellite communications system that provides protected, assured communication for strategic commanders and tactical warfighters. Lockheed Martin will deliver the fourth AEHF vehicle in 2017. AEHF 5 and AEHF 6 are in production and are on track to launch in 2018 and 2019, respectively.