Investigating Additive Manufacturing Possibilities for an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle with Polymeric Materials

Abstract

Fused filament fabrication, also known as fused deposition modeling and 3D printing, is the most common additive manufacturing technology due to its cost-effectiveness and customization flexibility compared to existing alternatives. It may revolutionize unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) design and fabrication. Therefore, this study hypothesizes the 3D printing possibility of UAV using a simple desktop printer and polymeric material. The extensive literature analysis identified the acceptable prototyping object and polymeric material. Thus, the research focuses on applying polylactic acid (PLA) in manufacturing the flying wing-type UAV and develops a fabrication concept to replicate arial vehicles initially produced from a mixture of expanded polystyrene and polyethylene. The material choice stems from PLA’s non-toxicity, ease of fabrication, and cost-effectiveness. Alongside ordinary PLA, this study includes lightweight PLA to investigate the mechanical performance of this advanced material, which changes its density depending on the printing temperature. This proof-of-concept study explores the mechanical properties of printed parts of the wing prototype. It also considers the possibility of fragmentation in fabricated objects because of the limitations of printing space. The simplified bending tests identified significant reserves in the mechanical performance regarding the theoretical resistance of the material in the wing prototype, which proves the raised hypothesis and delivers the object for further optimization. Focusing on the mechanical resistance, this study ignored rheology and durability issues, which require additional investigations. Fabricating the wing of the exact geometry reveals acceptable precision of the 3D printing processes but highlights the problematic technology issues requiring further resolution.