Engineering issues of rhenium-iridium engine thrust chamber by chemical vapor deposition technique

The paper overviews the principle and technological processes of chemical vapor deposition rhenium, iridium and niobium for high performance Re-Ir thrust. The CVD technology has predominance at manufacture of Re-Ir thrust chamber due to the conformality during deposition process. Uniformly depositing control and guarantee of high performance of the deposited for CVD rhenium process, purity improvement of the coating for CVD iridium process and bonding enhancement of niobium ring and rhenium substrate for CVD niobium process are the key issues of engineering application demands of Re-Ir thruster. The Re-Ir thruster manufactured by CVD technique in America has applied in satellites, while the case in China remains in the start stage.