TRW Opens SpacePower Factory

TRW Inc. has opened a new, world-class solar array production facility to meet the growing demand for its space systems and for those of other manufacturers of satellites and satellite constellations.

The 100,000-square-foot TRW Space Power Production Facility (SPPF) at the company’s Space Park campus contains state-of-the-art, custom-designed automated equipment for interconnecting, testing and inspecting solar cells, and spacious areas for assembling solar panels, solar arrays, electrical cables, harnesses and batteries.

“SPPF enhances TRW’s competitive position as a high-volume producer of solar arrays and components for commercial markets and for our own space systems,” said Allan M. Frew, vice president and general manager, Space & Technology Division. “We see demand increasing in the coming years, and we intend to be the premier supplier to the marketplace.”

The SPPF is an example of TRW’s on-going investment in the people, plants and processes necessary to develop highly competitive products and space systems. The facility utilizes software developed by TRW to control solar array manufacturing and inspection equipment, and to operate a real-time inventory control and data collection management system.

This capability permits TRW to accommodate crystalline silicon and gallium arsenide solar cells of any size, without changing equipment or tooling. It also:

• Significantly reduced labor costs;
• Cut solar cell attrition rates;
• Increased annual capacity by a factor of three, to the equivalent of 25 typical geosynchronous satellites; and,
• Reduced product change-over time from seven days to half a day.

TRW is also introducing an additional production line for processing amorphous silicon chips in the coming months.

In addition to manufacturing solar arrays and other spacecraft components, TRW offers a complete range of solar array design services, such as concept development, photovoltaic engineering, product design, structural and mechanical design, radiation effects analysis, materials engineering and other disciplines.

TRW’s solar arrays have provided more than 600 years of power to more than 190 military and commercial spacecraft over the past four decades, with no on-orbit failures.