miércoles, 8 de noviembre de 2017

General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper 3D model



The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (sometimes called Predator B) is an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations, developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) primarily for the United States Air Force (USAF).

Available formats:
STL (.stl) 551 KB
3D Studio (.3ds) 218 KB
OBJ (.obj) 1.1 MB

Autodesk FBX (.fbx)

GA-ASI selects GKN to create fuel bladders for MQ-9B


GKN Aerospace has signed a development agreement with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) covering the design, development and manufacture of fuel bladders for the MQ-9B Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) system.

GKN Aerospace develops, builds and supplies an extensive range of advanced aerospace systems and components made by Additive Manufacturing (AM) and other innovative manufacturing technologies focused to reduce weight on the aircrafts.

GKN Aerospace will work in conjunction with GA-ASI to design and manufacture the fuel bladders at the GKN Aerospace facility in Tallassee, AlabamaStefan Svenson, vice president of GKN Aerospace Special Products Group said: “We look forward to working with GA-ASI to provide a vital fuel system solution for this long-endurance Predator B platform variant. We have been supplying fuel systems for many decades and for many airframe platforms and MQ-9B fully exploits all our recent advances in both manufacturing and materials technologies.”

The agreement covers the fuel bladder system for the first production aircraft slated for 2018, with a potential full contract value of USD 15M when the aircraft enters into service with NATO’s UAV AIRWORTHINESS REQUIREMENTS (defined in STANAG 4671). MQ-9B is a "Type-Certifiable" version of GA-ASI’s Predator® B product line. The target is to create fuel bladders in complex shapes that fully exploit all available space on the MQ-9B airframe, maximizing the fuel load capacity and platform endurance.

General Atomics looks for an Additive Manufacturing Machine Technician



Duties & Responsibilities
Follow established procedures, assembly documentation, work instructions, methods and sequence of operation related to the creation of production parts and tooling using Additive Manufacturing (AM) (3D Printing), FDM and SLS techniques.

Essential Functions
Setup, operate and perform daily maintenance on AM machines.

Desirable Qualifications
Background in FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) and/or Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) AM technologies.

More info:

lunes, 6 de noviembre de 2017

Additive Manufacturing to improve MQ-9 Reaper


The U.S. Air Force Research Lab is looking at ways to retrofit servo cover caps with conformal antennas for a complementary effect in order to use Link 16, a military tactical data exchange network used by fourth-generation fighter jets such as F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon.

“The problem that we’re addressing through this program is that there’s a big need for Link 16 on the MQ-9,” said Dan Berrigan, lead researcher for Additive Manufacturing of functional materials at the lab.

“It currently doesn’t exist on the aircraft. Because of that, the current challenge is, how do you put an antenna on an existing aircraft without drilling holes, without modifying the outer mold line?” Through 3-D printing, engineers are creating servo covers —an actuator that controls the flaps on the MQ-9 Reaper— with antennas “printed directly onto the surface.”

U.S Army explores 3D printing UAVs on the frontline


The ARDEC (U.S Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center) has revealed its use of 3D Printing to create crucial functional parts for UAVs. Even more, the ARDEC engineers are researching the possibility of deploying a 3D Printing Laboratory onto the frontline to fabricate essential spare parts or tools to help in their missions.

Additive Manufacturing as a Challenge For New FAA Certification Approach


The first step towards the regulatory approval for use of Additive Manufacturing (AM) also known as 3D Manufacturing in aviation occurred when Dr. Michael Gorelik, FAA chief scientific and technical adviser for fatigue and damage tolerance, announced that a roadmap towards that eventuality has been created.

The FAA sent a draft version of its Additive Manufacturing Strategic Roadmap to the agency management team for evaluation and the document suggests production, certification, maintenance policies the agency aims to establish over the next seven to eight years.

(Read More...)

Naval Research Lab Tests Swarm of Stackable CICADA 3D Printed Microdrones


A 3D-Printed fuselage minimizes the amount of hands-on assembly time required, and the general idea is that eventually, these things will be created and assembled entirely by robots.

Pushing the Cutting Edge of Robots and UAVs


Additive manufacturing (AM), advances in sensing, computer vision, artificial intelligence and other technologies have come together to create a world of possibilities. “They’ve opened up a lot of use cases that we couldn’t even think about five years ago,” said John Lizzi, robotics breakout leader for GE Global Research. “How do you get these things to work together in collaborative ways?”

(Read More...)

Additive Manufacturing Trends In Aerospace


Aerospace is the industry that other industries look to for a glimpse at what’s on the horizon.

Aerospace has a long history of being an early adopter, innovator and investigator.

What this industry was doing decades ago has now become commonplace, almost pedestrian.

For example, the aerospace industry was the earliest adopter of carbon fiber, and it was the first to integrate CAD/CAM into its design process.

There are many other examples that show that trends in aerospace are predictors of future trends in manufacturing across all industries.

Industry 4.0 and the Evolution of Small, Smart, and Cheap Weapons


Dramatic improvements in Robotics, AI (Artificial Intelligence), AM (Additive Manufacturing, also known as 3D Printing), and Nanoenergetics are dramatically changing the character of conflict in all domains.

The convergence of these new and improving technologies is creating a massive increase in capabilities available to smaller and smaller political entities — extending even to the individual.

This increase provides smaller powers with capabilities that used to be the preserve of major powers. Moreover, these small, smart, and cheap weapons based on land, sea, or air may be able to dominate combat.

This new diffusion of power has major implications for the conduct of warfare and national strategy. Because even massive investment in mature technology leads to only incremental improvement in capabilities, the proliferation of many small and smart weapons may simply overwhelm a few exceptionally capable and complex systems.

The advances may force the United States to rethink its procurement plans, force structure, and force posture. The diffusion of power will also greatly complicate U.S. responses to various crises, reduce its ability to influence events with military force, and should require policymakers and military planners to thoughtfully consider future policies and strategy.

Application of Additive Manufacturing for Light-weight UAV Wing Structures


UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) have been developed to perform various military and civilian applications.

The present research is motivated by the need to develop a fast adaptable UAV design technologies for agile, fuel efficient, and flexible structures that are capable of adapting and operating in any environments.

The objective of this research is to develop adaptive design technologies by investigating current design methods and knowledge of deployable technologies in the area of engineering design and manufacturing.

More specifically, this research seeks to identify one truss lattice with the optimal elastic performance for deployable UAV wing design according to the Hashin & Shtrikman theoretical bounds.

We propose three lattice designs - 3D Kagome structure, 3D Pyramidal structure and the 3D Hexagonal Diamond structure. The proposed lattice structure designs are fabricated using an Stratasys Objet350 3D Printer while the material chosen is a polypropylene-like photopolymer called Objet DurusWhite RGD430.

Based on compression testing, the proposed inflatable wing design will combine the advantages of compliant mechanisms and deployable structures to maximize flexibilities of movement in UAV design and development.