Hello,
Some time ago I fell on this :
http://www.diydrones.com/forum/topics/printed-wing-concept
that was the spark that ignite everything in my head.
I'm doing kitesurf and kitefoil and we can't reach excessive speed (over 24 kots) due to fast stabilisation problem.
In the water the small pressure differential can have enormous effect, which make you fall every time.
So I first started doing a fast IMU for my wing and now I'm trying to print it ;)
we do not have any problem of weight, the wing is lifting lot for a small surface.
Here is the pictures of my firts printing attempts ... on a mendel prusa ;)
will try to talk later on the IMU ;)
Comments
Hi Roman,
glad to see you likes my pic. It seems the idea of RP airframes is not very novel now...I have been working as a designer on the LEMV project so have been pretty busy. After spending a lot of time investigating the idea of printing the UAV airframes I have come up with a proces for making plastic parts over 5 times stiffer which I think has some applications in UAV design. I am also trying to patent a process for the manufacture of structural parts.
I think if you make an airframe from the RP materials they will be too heavy or not stiff enough.....they need to be made light and stiff. ( for some applications an optimised design is perhaps not so important, the two planes I have seen made from RP machines fly OK, just not optimised for performance) Also you have to realise traditional materials like balsa etc are hard to beat on weight. I think the beauty of airframes built directly from RP machines is the speed of construction, the closeness of the process to the designer and the ability of the design to be infinitely flexible with no tooling and a reduction in the total number of components.
RP airframes are the future......period. We will soon see micro UAV airframes for civil/military applications which offer massive cost savings over traditional designs. Possibly to the point that micro uavs can be seen as disposable.
Ollie
If you're actually 3D printing things, which simplifies a load of fabrication problems at the expense of using 3d printer material, why not drop the square grid honeycomb, and try a triangle grid honeycomb?
Or better yet, a tetrahedral 3D open-cell crystal structure.
yes, me too ;)
I'm using a REPRAP Mendel Prusa, it is a great toy, but it is light.
You have to do many modification before making something usable, like a heated bed for example.
I thinks I'll make myself an Ultimaker, which look far more better and more PRO.
Looking forward to seeing the final product!
What 3d printer are you using btw? as I am looking into getting one for myself. Do you have any suggestions?
Yes, I saw this post, awesome.
On my CAD file, it weight 300gr, it is not finished printed now...
Looks cool, whats the weight of the 3d printed part. Have you also seen the posts on the fully 3d printed RC aircraft that a UK university made?