3D Printed UAV

Here is another awesome example of how 3D printing was able to overcome issues that traditional manufacturing methods would normally have faced. Boeing, and engineers with The University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) created this 3D printed UAV. The design and printing process took much shorter, allowing them to use up only 24 hours instead of 120 hours for each rendition of the UAV.

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"By understanding the capability of the FDM process and the associated software, we were able to manipulate the design to contain a number of unique features as well as preventing build deformation," says Mark Cocking, additive manufacturing development engineer in the AMRC Design & Prototyping Group.

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They printed this UAV out with a Stratasys Fortus 900mc FDM 3D printer.

http://www.3ders.org/images/amrc-uav-3d-printed-1.png

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Originally Posted by Brian_Krassenstein

Here is another awesome example of how 3D printing was able to overcome issues that traditional manufacturing methods would normally have faced. Boeing, and engineers with The University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) created this 3D printed UAV. The design and printing process took much shorter, allowing them to use up only 24 hours instead of 120 hours for each rendition of the UAV.



They printed this UAV out with a Stratasys Fortus 900mc FDM 3D printer.

http://www.3ders.org/images/amrc-uav-3d-printed-1.png

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Seems to follow the same approach I'm using on a UAV I'm building, the wings are printed in a "Spiral Vase" mode, including the internal structure in one go. My printer can only accomodate up to 15cm high objects, so I have to split them into sections.


Attachment 763

So far I have been using PLA, I haven't tried with ABS but I'm concerned it would warp unless it is printed in a temperature controlled enclosure.