Composite overwrapped pressure vessel

A composite overwrapped pressure vessel (COPV) is a vessel consisting of a thin, non-structural liner wrapped with a structural fiber composite, designed to hold a fluid under pressure.

[6] COPVs are commonly manufactured by winding resin-impregnated high tensile strength fiber tape directly onto a cylindrical or spherical metallic liner.

The entire vessel is then heated in a temperature controlled oven in order to harden the composite resin.

In 2016, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded on the pad due to the failure of a COPV inside the liquid oxygen tank:[10] the failure resulted from accumulation of frozen solid oxygen between the COPV's aluminum liner and composite overwrap in a void or buckle.

A similar failure occurred in 2015 on CRS-7 when the COPV burst, causing the oxygen tank to overpressurize and explode 139 seconds into flight.