Unmanned Systems Technology 002 | Scion SA-400 | Commercial UAV Show report | Vision sensors | Danielson Trident I Security and safety systems | MIRA MACE | Additive manufacturing | Marine UUVs

74 Focus | Additive Manufacturing to-machine geometry can be achieved. Aerospace alloys such as 6xxx or 7xxx series materials are not widely used, as they are more difficult to process and their low cost and ease of machining reduces the drivers to develop such materials when compared with titanium or nickel alloy families. Conclusions Both plastic and metal AM technologies have matured substantially in the past few years, from fundamentally laboratory-derived machines capable of producing one-off prototypes to reasonably industrialised processes that are beginning to show their potential for manufacturing in low to medium volumes. However, it is important that such components make sense for the manufacturing technology. Value such as reduced weight, improved design flexibility and manufacturing agility must often be added to justify the usual increase in manufacturing cost, for metal parts in particular. All these factors would appear to be an ideal fit for many components in the unmanned systems industry, where manufacture of only a few high-value items may be required, and weight, space or function are at a premium. Acknowledgements The author would like to thank Dr Martin McMahon, Sue Burnip and Lynn Painter of 3T RPD, Daniel Hund of Concept Laser, Dan Fleetcroft of Performance Engineered Solutions, Kevin Lambourne and Keith Haynes of Graphite Additive Manufacturing, Pieter Vos and Stijn De Rijck of Materialise, Francesca Cuoghi of CRP, Andy Cheney of Magna Parva, Stuart Jackson of EOS, Ian Campbell and Mike Kelly of Innovate 2 Make and the project partners of the Innovate UK-supported LIGHT project for their invaluable insight and assistance in the research for this article. Spring 2015 | Unmanned Systems Technology AD Belgium LayerWise +32 16 94 64 00 www.layerwise.com Materialise +32 16 39 66 11 www.materialise.be France Poly-Shape +33 164 851 310 www.poly-shape.com Germany Alphaform +49 89 905 00 289 www.alphaform.de CITIM +49 39 203 51 060 www.citim.de Concept Laser +49 95 719 49 238 www.concept-laser.de EOS +49 89 893 36 134 www.eos.info ExOne +49 82 174 760 www.exone.com Spires-Tec +49 157 551 47671 - Italy CRP +39 059 821 135 www.crp.eu / www.windform.it ProtoService +39 052 540 1281 www.protoservice.it Sinthesi Engineering +39 331 556 557 www.sinthesieng.it SWEDEN Arcam AB +46 31 710 32 00 www.arcam.com UK 3DDC +44 (0)1234 391894 www.3ddc.eu 3D Systems (CRDM) +44 (0)8450 514900 www.3dsystems.com 3T RPD Ltd +44 (0)1635 580284 www.3trpd.co.uk ARRK Europe +44 (0)1452 727700 www.arrkeurope.com CA Models +44 (0)1786 464434 www.camodels.co.uk Croft Additive Manufacturing +44 (0)1925 767 070 www.croftam.co.uk EOS +44 (0)1926 623107 www.eos.info I2M +44 (0)7850 631 299 www.i2m.co.uk Laser Prototypes +44 (0)28 9070 6940 www.laserproto.com Laser Lines +44 (0)1295 672500 www.laserlines.co.uk Performance Engineered Solutions +44 (0)114 321 6375 www.pes-performance.com Renishaw +44 (0)1785 815651 www.renishaw.com USA 3D Systems +1 978 494 8200 www.3dsystems.com CRP USA +1 704 660 0258 www.crp-usa.net Cytec +1 973 357 3100 www.cytec.com ExOne +1 724 863 9663 www.exone.com Incodema +1 607 227 7070 www.incodema.com Paramount Industries +1 215 757 9611 www.paramountind.com Stratasys +1 952 937 3000 www.stratasys.com Some examples of additive manufacturing suppliers