Renishaw, HiETA & nTopology Support Cobra Aero in the Design, Development and Production of a Novel UAV Engine

Cobra Aero, a successful producer of two-stroke engines for UAV applications approached Renishaw to understand how they could incorporate additive manufacturing into their existing manufacturing portfolio.

Cobra had a vision for the use of metal Additive Manufacturing (AM) in their business, and enlisted additional help from HiETA and nTopology to help drive the development of an innovative engine design.

Leveraging the design opportunities of AM and the expertise of the partners involved, Cobra have devised a pioneering and extremely performant new engine design.

Moreover, Cobra have explored the applications space including production of tooling, complex componentry and highly customized components in their sister motorcycle business, Cobra Moto.

Primary Topics: • Design for Manufacture • Aerospace Design • Complex Structures for Heat Exchange • Product Innovation and Testing Speaker: Kevin Brigden Additive Applications Engineer, Renishaw

Kevin has a master's degree in engineering with honors in motorsports engineering from the University of Central Lancashire, England. A member of a team of technical specialists, he brings a skill-set centered in computer-aided engineering (CAE) including computer-aided design (CAD), finite element analysis (FEA) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). During Kevin's time with Renishaw, he has led and consulted on numerous design projects in collaboration with partners and customers from aerospace, automotive, space and defense and medical engineering. Kevin is at the forefront of the design for additive manufacture (DfAM) movement, with many of his characteristic and innovative designs widely recognized and imitated.

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Stratasys Composite Production

Stratasys’ development of high-temperature materials, as well as the increased throughput of its Fortus 3D Production Systems, enable the manufacture of high-temperature lay-up / sacrificial tooling in hours or days, rather than the weeks or months it would take to produce and procure tooling made from traditional methods.

3D printed tooling also offers disruptive cost-savings compared to traditional tooling materials and numerous other less quantified benefits, such as dramatic weight savings. This is being exemplified by Dutch 3D service bureau, Visual First, who is using FDM Nylon 12CF carbon-filled thermoplastic to replace metal machine parts for its customer, The Chocolate Factory.

This has significantly reduced machine downtime, ensuring production line continuity for the company. In fact, the replacement time of broken machine parts has been reduced from one month to one week using Stratasys additive manufacturing compared to traditional handmade metal replacements, with cost reductions of 60%.