Custom Parachute Manufacturing Guide (Saves $$)

[lhall3b]

Our Recovery team-lead has been manufacturing our parachutes from scratch and our budget is very grateful. Since we are consistently increasing the size and power of our rockets, and with hopes of launching more frequently, the ability to produce our own custom chutes has proven to be invaluable. He put together this guide for our own future team members, and hopefully it will be helpful to others in the rocketry community. If anyone else has suggestions, tips, tricks or recommendations in the from-scratch parachute build space, please share!

This document is courtesy of:

Matt Huang
Recovery Team Lead
Rutgers Rocket Propulsion Laboratory [RRPL]

 

[Zeus-cat]

Very nice, thank you. A Bill of Material would be helpful. What do you use for parachute risers?

 

[jazzviper1]

The line attachment is a potential failure point.
The lines will eventually cut through the folded ripstop.
Use nylon support tape or binding tape instead.

 

[Banzai88]

We normally just stitch the shrouds to the canopy. The fabric will fail long before the stitching will.

 

[lhall3b]

Very nice, thank you. A Bill of Material would be helpful. What do you use for parachute risers?

10 yards of Ottertex ripstop nylon [$44.90]
Nylon Thread from Amazon [$7.39]
Shroud Lines [$4.98 per pack]

This should do for about 2 50-inch chutes and 2 30-inch chutes.

For risers, we use 1/4 inch kevlar round chord.

 

[lhall3b]

The line attachment is a potential failure point.
The lines will eventually cut through the folded ripstop.
Use nylon support tape or binding tape instead.

Thank you! I passed this suggestion along to our team lead!