Image

World’s first “3D-printed” UAV

Sept. 8, 2011
A 3D printing method called laser sintering is helping to change the face of unmanned-air-vehicle (UAV) design. Engineers at the University of Southampton in the U. K. designed an entire UAV structure, including wings, control surfaces, and access hatches

Resources:
EOS GmbH
3T RPD

A 3D printing method called laser sintering is helping to change the face of unmanned-air-vehicle (UAV) design. Engineers at the University of Southampton in the U. K. designed an entire UAV structure, including wings, control surfaces, and access hatches. The craft needs no fasteners and can be snap-fitted together without tools in minutes. Auxiliary equipment such as the electric engine also snaps on. The team worked with additive manufacturer 3T RPD Ltd. in the U. K., which built the aircraft with an EOSINT P 730 nylon laser-sintering machine from EOS GmbH in Germany.

The 3D-printed UAV has a 2-m wingspan and is almost silent in cruise mode. The aircraft also has a miniature autopilot.

Laser sintering suits UAV design because it can create shapes and structures that would normally require costly traditional manufacturing methods. The technique lets engineers develop highly tailored aircraft from concept to first flight in days.

Typically, parts take months to complete. Further, because no tooling is needed for manufacture of 3D-printed components, it’s possible to make radical changes to the craft’s shape and scale, with no extra costs.

Better yet, laser sintering lets designers revisit historical techniques and ideas that would be prohibitively expensive using traditional manufacturing. One idea involves the use of a Geodetic structure, which was used on the Vickers Wellington bomber in 1936. The structure is stiff and lightweight, but complex. To make it by conventional means would take a large number of individually tailored parts which would need to be bonded or fastened at great expense.

Another design benefit that laser sintering gives UAV is the use of an elliptically shaped wing. Aerodynamicists have known for decades that these wings offer drag benefits. For example, the Spitfire wing with its elliptical shape was recognized as an efficient design. But it was notoriously difficult and expensive to manufacture. Because laser sintering removes manufacturing constraints associated with shape complexity, there is no cost penalty to the use of elliptical wings.

© 2011 Penton Media, Inc.

About the Author

Leslie Gordon

Leslie serves as Senior Editor - 5 years of service. M.S. Information Architecture and Knowledge Management, Kent State University. BA English, Cleveland State University.

Work Experience: Automation Operator, TRW Inc.; Associate Editor, American Machinist. Primary editor for CAD/CAM technology.

Sponsored Recommendations

Drive systems for urban air mobility

March 18, 2025
The shift of some of our transport traffic from the road to the air through urban air mobility is one of the most exciting future fields in the aerospace industry.

Blazing the trail for flying robots

March 18, 2025
Eight Bachelor students built a flying manipulator that can hover in any orientation and grasp objects. The drone is even more maneuverable than a quadrocopter and was designed...

Reachy 2: The Open-Source Humanoid Robot Redefining Human-Machine Interaction

March 18, 2025
Reachy 2 was designed to adapt to a wide variety of uses thanks to its modular architecture.

maxon IDX: The plug-and-play solution

March 18, 2025
IDX drives combine power with small space requirements - a brushless BLDC motor combined with an EPOS4 positioning controller and a gearhead inside a high-quality industrial housing...

Voice your opinion!

To join the conversation, and become an exclusive member of Machine Design, create an account today!