The uRM-2 Hold Down Release Mechanism (HDRM) was designed as a necessity in size, mass and preload capacity for our EP2M-5 gimbal hardware. It is used to limit movement of the gimbal during launch loads and releases the structural panels once on-orbit. The miniaturization of the HDRM, yet it's high load capacity multiple purposes including comms pointing, optical payload pointing and thrust vectoring of small spacecraft.

 

The uRM-2 quickly became a product that other companies and systems could use. The 1.5 x 1.5 x 0.3 inch^3 volume is small enough to fit in many low-profile areas and the mechanical firing/testing without the need of electronics gives it a rapid prototyping capability.

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The uRM-2 has fully redundant SMA wires that provide the actuation. It also includes an integral switch to confirm the mechanism has been fired/opened to release the captured nut.​The

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We developed two versions, one "standard" version that operates similar to most other SMA wire HDRM's and a "smart" version. The smart version has the benefit of only ever taking <3 watts of power while internally providing the current needed to actuate the SMA wires. ​

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The uRM-2 is a game changer with its extremely low mass and volume efficient, low-cost and short leadtime solution for the age of flexible small spacecraft.