Lübeck, Germany — LEAP 71 today announced the successful production of a 2000 kN (2 Meganewton) full-flow staged combustion rocket engine injector head with German/Japanese industrial 3D printing pioneer Nikon SLM Solutions. The large-scale metal part was printed using the high-speed SLM NXG 600E Industrial Additive Manufacturing System and marks an important milestone in a collaboration that began more than two years ago.

The component is a critical element of the LEAP 71 XRB-2E6 methane/liquid oxygen rocket engine. At 600 mm in diameter, the object is one of the largest and most complex 3D-printed spacecraft parts ever produced. It was generated entirely by LEAP 71’s Noyron Large Computational Engineering Model, a physics-driven software system described as “the first AI that builds machines,” operating entirely without human intervention.

Nikon SLM Solutions printed the part from Inconel 718, an aerospace-grade nickel alloy specially designed to withstand the enormous heat loads and pressures of a full-flow staged combustion (FFSC) engine cycle. FFSC has been called the holy grail of rocket propulsion because it is the most efficient way to convert the propellant’s chemical energy into thrust. The advanced engine cycle, however, comes at the cost of dealing with hot pre-combusted methane and oxygen flowing through the intricate injection mechanism.

At 2 Meganewton, the XRB-2E6 targets a similar thrust level to the engines currently powering the world’s latest generation of heavy-lift launchers. The company aims for practical testing of the XRB-2E6 in Q4 2027. As part of the aggressive schedule, LEAP 71 is forging partnerships for early validation of the industrial processes needed to reliably manufacture the engine, using some of the largest metal 3D printers in the world.

Said Christoph Wangenheim, Head of Additive Material Products & Development at Nikon SLM Solutions: “When LEAP 71 came to us to discuss the production of a key element of one of the world’s most advanced space propulsion systems, we knew it would be a challenge we couldn’t resist. We worked closely with LEAP 71 on incorporating essential manufacturing parameters into their Noyron system and fine-tuning the interplay between the steps of the process chain. As a result, we were able to not only print the intricate structure reliably on the NXG 600E, but also in the record time of four days — key to making production economically viable and enabling rapid iteration during qualification.”

Metal Additive Manufacturing is central to the LEAP 71 paradigm because it gives Noyron the freedom to design complex, efficient structures with minimal production constraints. By printing the component as one monolithic whole, LEAP 71 eliminates the challenge of assembling hundreds of standardized parts that all need to be precision-machined and sealed. This significantly improves system reliability and cuts time-to-produce from weeks to days.

“We are happy to collaborate with Nikon SLM Solutions on this ambitious project. With their legacy as one of the original inventors of metal 3D printing, we couldn’t hope for a better partner on this journey,” said Josefine Lissner, Co-founder and CEO of LEAP 71 and principal architect of the Noyron Large Computational Engineering Model. “The NXG’s 12-laser system brings down manufacturing time to a level that enables the rapid turnaround we need to take full advantage of the iteration speed our paradigm enables.”

Noyron generates the entire engine design from abstract specifications without human intervention in a matter of hours. The result is a functionally integrated part that doesn’t require assembly and can be moved to the test stand with minimal additional post-processing. This is key to LEAP 71’s philosophy of fast and frequent practical testing to enrich Noyron with real-world insights.

The XRB-2E6 system is intended as a reference design, with customer engines computationally derived for differing target specifications. LEAP 71 works with leading global companies to accelerate humanity’s access to space.

The part will be shown at the Formnext 2025 trade show in Frankfurt, Germany, at the Nikon SLM Solutions booth (Hall 12.0 D119).

About LEAP 71

LEAP 71 was founded on the vision that radically accelerating real-world engineering is essential to shaping the future of humankind. Strategically based in Dubai, UAE, the company works with customers worldwide to design advanced machinery across aerospace, electric mobility, robotics, and thermal systems.

A pioneer in the emerging field of Computational Engineering, LEAP 71 designs physical objects autonomously — without manual modeling or human input. At its core is Noyron, a Large Computational Engineering Model that encodes logic, physics, production methodologies, and real-world feedback into a coherent, deterministic system. It has been called “the first AI that builds machines.”

Noyron generates functional designs in seconds or minutes, optimized for modern manufacturing technologies such as industrial 3D printing.

A key focus for the company is extending humanity’s footprint in space. LEAP 71 is developing a spectrum of reference designs for space propulsion systems that serve as the DNA for customer-specific engines. Frequent physical testing and validation continuously enrich Noyron’s models.

LEAP 71 was founded in 2023 by aerospace engineer Josefine Lissner and serial entrepreneur Lin Kayser.

Visit the LEAP 71 website for more information.