Welcome to Instar Engineering and Consulting

Engineering courses and consulting for the aerospace industry

Established in 1993 and based in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, Instar provides practical engineering courses and consulting services primarily to the space industry in the fields of structures, dynamics/vibration, and mechanical systems. Note that we rarely provide engineering services; we provide independent review and guidance for projects that interest us.

• Mechanical systems engineering: requirements definition and interpretation, concept development, verification planning, and risk assessment
• Conceptual structural design
• Methodology for stress analysis and finite element modeling
• Fatigue assessment and derivation of load spectra
• Loads, dynamics, and vibration
• Structural and mechanical test engineering: static loads, fatigue, vibration
• Notching and force limiting
• Bolted joints: design, analysis, and test; NASA-STD-5020B compliance; development of fastening system control plans

Courses

Since 1995, Tom Sarafin of Instar has taught in excess of 300 courses to more than 6000 aerospace engineers and managers, with course duration varying from two to five full days.

Our clients:

• Air Force Research Lab (AFRL)
• ATA Aerospace
• Ball Aerospace (now part of BAE Systems)
• Blue Origin
• Boeing (El Segundo, Houston, and Huntington Beach)
• The Canadian Space Agency
• DARPA
• DigitalGlobe (now part of Maxar Technologies)
• DOD Space Test Program
• Lockheed Martin Space Systems (Denver, Michoud, and Sunnyvale)
• Los Alamos National Lab
• NASA (Dryden, Glenn, Goddard, JPL, Johnson, Kennedy, Langley, Marshall, Wallops)
• NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC)
• National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)
• Naval Research Laboratory
• Northrop Grumman
• Planetary Systems Corporation (now part of Rocket Lab USA)
• Sandia National Laboratories
• Sierra Nevada Corporation and Sierra Space
• SpaceX
• and many more organizations