FDM Telescoping Wing UAV

Engineers at MIT Lincoln Laboratory (Cambridge, MA) 3D printed (FDM technology on a Fortus 400mc) a UAV with telescoping wings made of Ultem 9085.

Structure was primarily FDM except for a carbon fiber backbone that all the parts were attached to. Designed to be highly modular, the aircraft was essentially 3 reconfigurable pieces: the fuselage pod on the front with the avionics and batteries, the wings, and the empennage.

To adjust the CG for different payloads all the parts can be moved around. The wings are printed without support material (an option only available with Fortus 3D Production Systems) with an internal structure that made them pretty strong (see above video). 

FDM-printed fixed wing UAV

A team of engineers from the AMRC’s new Design & Prototyping Group (DPG) have designed, manufactured and flight tested a UAV built entirely of ABS plastic, using FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) technology.

The recent increase in the use of both additive layer manufacturing and UAVs has led to the availability of a number of 3D printed UAVs for a range of applications. For printing relatively large components such as a UAV airframe, FDM technology is chosen over stereo lithography and selective laser sintering for its lower initial investment, material cost and simplified process.

The manufacturing aspects of the project were led by Additive Manufacture Development Engineer Mark Cocking: “All parts required for the airframe can be combined onto a single build within the Fortus 900 machine, taking less than 24 hours with ABS-M30 material. Before design for additive manufacture optimisation, this airframe would take over 120 hours to produce.”