If Gary is convinced, so am I:
A while ago I thought that small 3D printed drones would not really become a thing. I based this on weight and build size. I could not see how it could be made to work.
I was utterly wrong.
Stepan Dokoupil and Patrik Svida, of 3D Lab Print in the Czech Republic, have created works of art. Scale warbirds and a glider right now but it can only be a hop and skip to making unmanned aircraft that can be reproduced at a low cost as fast as your printer can print.
I cannot begin to imagine how many hours of work have gone into designing these machines.
The thought of being able to email an update of a design or indeed an entirely new design to somebody in the field is delicious. It would create an entirely new sort of relationship with drone designers and customers.
Regulators will also have something else to think about.
I’m convinced locally printed drones have a future. I am late to the party.
Comments
@Jerry Giant Very beautiful! What is the size and weight of the frame? Thanks!
beautiful
Nice!
I really love the wing structure design.
I've been 3D printing aircraft for a while now, the trick is getting a lightweight but strong wing section comprised of multiple parts that most 3D printers can manage. These days I print the outer skin with abs or petg in 150mm sections with a special "joiner". These are strengthened by carbon spars which also hold the sections in place. Further strength is added by filling the airfoil with a special core material. These wings can then be smoothed with vapour or heat treatment for a really nice finish. 3d printing allows almost seamless integration of direct drive servos and motor mounts. By the way Andrew, I really like your design work on the hdwing3- very nice.
The 3Dlabprints guys have done an amazing job and I'm sorely temped with the P38, but their work has inspired me in the mean time to have a crack at printing my wing design, which I'll post about shortly. Printing is underway although I'm still working on detail design of half of it. Printing is a slooooow process at this scale. Anyway I think they call it concurrency in the military-industrial complex...
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