The drone business is underneath strain from a number of instructions directly. Producers are anticipated to maneuver quicker, iterate extra usually, scale manufacturing with out overcommitting capital, and construct provide chains which can be simply identifiable, safe, and resilient. More and more, these pressures are forcing a rethink of how drones are designed and manufactured, not simply how they fly.
That problem is precisely what the Barcelona-based drone staff at HP Additive Manufacturing got down to discover with their newest undertaking. The staff developed a whole plane to discover what turns into attainable when aerospace engineering and additive manufacturing are designed collectively from the outset.
“We developed this drone to exhibit how far you may get with the expertise,” mentioned Clara Quinquilla, Drone Phase Supervisor at HP. “It was about combining drone know-how with deep additive manufacturing experience and seeing how a lot efficiency and adaptability we might unlock.”
Designing With the Manufacturing Course of in Thoughts
From the start, the undertaking introduced collectively design engineers and aeronautical engineers working facet by facet, with additive manufacturing handled as a core design functionality reasonably than a downstream manufacturing step.
The result’s a 1.5-meter fixed-wing UAV designed particularly round what HP’s additive manufacturing platforms can do in manufacturing. By understanding each aerodynamics and the printing course of intimately, the staff was capable of fine-tune designs rapidly and effectively.
“The design journey has been superb,” Quinquilla mentioned. “There have been three totally different iterations inside three months. That’s one thing that might usually take producers rather more time, and rather more cash.”
That tempo was fueled by the staff’s enthusiasm as a lot because the expertise itself. Engineers labored late nights, examined aggressively, and adjusted designs in brief cycles, pushing the bounds of the method whereas studying from each flight.
Taking the Greatest from Each Manufacturing Expertise
A key takeaway from the undertaking is that no single manufacturing technique is right for each a part of a drone. As a substitute, HP’s staff targeted on combining applied sciences, every used the place it delivers probably the most worth.
The drone makes use of off-the-shelf carbon fiber rods as an inside skeleton, offering energy and stiffness at low price. The outside airframe is produced utilizing HP’s additive manufacturing expertise.
“Complicated types are arduous to provide in carbon fiber,” mentioned David Mazo, Aerospace Engineering Group Lead for HP Additive Manufacturing. “So we use normal rods that we simply want to chop. We get the energy and price benefit, after which we use our printer and materials for every thing that isn’t carrying the primary structural load.”
This hybrid method permits engineers to take advantage of carbon fiber the place rigidity issues most, whereas counting on additive manufacturing for light-weight constructions and sophisticated geometries that might be tough or costly to provide in any other case.
“We take one of the best from every expertise,” Mazo mentioned. “One provides us energy and price effectivity, and the opposite provides us freedom of form and light-weight. That’s what we did with this drone, and it’s what we’re doing with buyer tasks.”
Showcasing Extremely-Skinny Printing Capabilities
The drone additionally highlights one in all HP’s most up-to-date additive manufacturing advances: the power to provide extraordinarily skinny, constant elements at scale.
“HP’s 5600 platform permits customers to fine-tune the printing course of,” Quinquilla mentioned. “While you’re adjusting thickness, you may produce elements of lower than 0.5 millimeters. That’s an actual differentiator.”
These skinny constructions are produced utilizing polyamide supplies already widespread in drone manufacturing, making the outcomes straight related to real-world functions. The power to scale back materials thickness with out sacrificing sturdiness has clear advantages for weight discount, aerodynamic effectivity, and general efficiency.
Iteration on the Pace of Engineering Concepts
For the Barcelona staff, one of the energizing facets of the undertaking was the velocity of iteration. Conventional manufacturing workflows usually contain lengthy delays between design, tooling, testing, and redesign. Additive manufacturing compresses these cycles dramatically.
“With molds, it’s a must to develop them, check them, after which redesign them,” Mazo mentioned. “As a substitute of loops that take weeks, you’re speaking about months. That’s an enormous barrier once you’re making an attempt to maneuver quick.”
That velocity mattered because the staff pushed technical limits. Early flight checks revealed areas the place rigidity could possibly be improved, and engineers responded by redesigning and reprinting elements reasonably than beginning over.
“As an engineer, a variety of instances you wait six months to see how one thing works,” Mazo mentioned. “Right here, we had been pushing the expertise, studying quick, and making adjustments virtually instantly. There have been late nights, but additionally a variety of nice moments.”
Quinquilla described the payoff: “Seeing the way it works, the items snap collectively. It’s actually easy, actually quick, actually spectacular.”
Scaling With out Lock-In
Past iteration, the undertaking was designed to discover practical manufacturing volumes. HP’s staff sees additive manufacturing as particularly well-suited to mid-range manufacturing, the place tooling prices can in any other case stall innovation.
For small quadcopters, a single printer can help manufacturing of greater than 7,000 items monthly. For a 1.5-meter fixed-wing UAV, one printer can produce round 100 airframes monthly. Bigger methods may be produced at decrease charges whereas nonetheless supporting a whole lot of full methods month-to-month.
“Under these volumes, you may’t even justify the molds,” Mazo famous. “Above them, you can begin mixing printed elements with molding the place it is sensible.”
Constructing Provide Chains That Bend, Not Break
Provide-chain resilience has turn out to be a defining concern for drone producers, notably as firms rethink the place and the way their merchandise are constructed to satisfy evolving buy standards. Additive manufacturing gives a solution to localize manufacturing with out duplicating whole factories.
“For firms exterior the U.S., some are fascinated by whether or not they need to transfer molding manufacturing nearer to their prospects or leverage HP machines already in place,” Mazo mentioned. “That method provides you extra resiliency and means that you can put manufacturing nearer to the place the drones are used.”
“It’s not nearly how briskly we are able to iterate,” Quinquilla added. “It’s additionally about how briskly you may produce elements, as a result of you may produce what you want, the place you want it.”
That flexibility additionally helps embedded and field-level manufacturing, together with the power to restore or adapt drones nearer to deployment.
A Toolset for Quick-Shifting Drone Corporations
HP is evident that it isn’t coming into the drone market as a producer. The purpose is to assist others transfer quicker and with fewer constraints.
“We’re right here to assist folks develop and produce drones,” Mazo mentioned. “We’re not right here to promote our drones. We’re displaying that it is a actually viable expertise.”
HP makes a speciality of transitioning additive manufacturing from area of interest functions to industrial-scale mass manufacturing. In collaboration with world-class business leaders, the corporate works to rework and regionalize international provide chains. For drone producers, this implies leveraging confirmed industrial platforms to attain repeatable, cost-effective manufacturing at scale.
In a sector the place agility more and more defines competitiveness, the work popping out of HP’s drone staff factors to a broader shift: manufacturing is changing into a strategic benefit, enabling drone makers to check concepts quicker, reply to prospects sooner, and preserve innovation shifting on the tempo of engineering ambition.
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Miriam McNabb is the Editor-in-Chief of DRONELIFE and CEO of JobForDrones, knowledgeable drone companies market, and a fascinated observer of the rising drone business and the regulatory atmosphere for drones. Miriam has penned over 3,000 articles targeted on the industrial drone area and is a world speaker and acknowledged determine within the business. Miriam has a level from the College of Chicago and over 20 years of expertise in excessive tech gross sales and advertising for brand new applied sciences.
For drone business consulting or writing, E mail Miriam.
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