Pressure Vessels
ACE designs and analyzes metallic propellant tanks and composite over-wrapped pressure vessels, including lightweight flight pressure vessels per requirements of applicable NASA, ASME, and Military Standards. ACE designs satisfy ANSI AIAA S-080 and S-081, MIL-STD 1522A and conform to the US Airforce range safety document EWR 127-1. ACE designs tanks and pressurized components for unique operating conditions that include extreme temperatures and environments, corrosive and hazardous contents, and severe loading that can cause low and high cycle fatigue.
ACE has developed advanced integrated-tank-bus designs to enable weight and cost savings. This is different to the traditional approach of dropping the tank into a spacecraft bus to be supported using struts, tabs, skirts, and flexures where both local strengthening of the tank and bus are required. Alternatively, an all-metal tank or a composite over-wrapped tank with a metal liner may be structurally integrated to a bus structure such that the stiffness of the bus and tank act in unison. A key aspect of this approach is that bus-tank structure has to be designed, analyzed, and tested as an integrated structural sub-assembly.