June/July 2023 | Uncrewed Systems Technology 36 Additive manufacturing (AM) and 3D printing are pushing the limits of materials, processes and designs, for prototyping as well as manufacturing uncrewed systems. The technology is regularly used for prototyping, allowing faster iterations of designs without having to change tooling. But increasingly it is also a key part of the design process, for example by adding self-healing elements for repairs, de-icing surfaces and allowing large curved surfaces to be printed. Machine learning (ML) is also increasingly being applied to improve the quality of the AM process to identify and minimise any defects and ensure parts are suitable for long-term use. All of this is driving more use of the technology in a range of uncrewed system designs. Multi-axis carbon fibre production One 3D-printing system has a customisable 12-axis frame to allow as much flexibility as possible in the printing process. It allows an uncrewed vehicle to be designed around the parts it creates using a range of modular end-effectors with numerous customisation options. The system is flexible enough to print curved surfaces, and can be installed in a shipping container with the feedstock to provide local manufacturing in a controlled environment. One type of end-effector uses a lightweight carbon fibre chassis that holds a filament driver and motors, with multiple nozzle sizes available from 0.5 to 3 mm and handling temperatures of up to 600 oC. These can process a wide range of thermoplastics, including high-performance materials such as PEEK, in the industry-standard 1.75 and 2.85 mm filament sizes. For continuous fibre printing, the system supports fibre lengths from 3k to 100k. The end-effector can also process carbon fibre in a more cost-effective way. Rather than using a resin pre-loaded with Nick Flaherty takes stock of the latest research into newmethods of 3D printing and the applications they look set to open up Printpreview This carbon fibre end-effector for a 12-axis 3D-printing system is flexible enough to print curved surfaces (Courtesy of Orbital Composites)
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