Propeller Blade Repair Printed Inside Flyer
Just a warning for readers with weak stomachs, the video below graphically depicts an innocent rubber band plane being annihilated mid-air by a high-tech RC helicopter. It's a shocking display of airborne class warfare, but the story has a happy ending, as [Concrete Dog] was able to fix his old-school flyer with some very modern technology: a set of propeller blades printed in 3D.
Now, under normal circumstances, 3D printed propellers are a risky prospect. To avoid being torn apart by the incredible rotational forces they will be subjected to, they usually need to be inflated to the point that they become too heavy and performance suffers. The stepped outer surface of the printed blade doesn't help either.
But in a rubber band powered light aircraft obviously things are a bit more relaxed. The thin blades [Concrete Dog] produced on his Prusa Mini appear to be only one or two layers thick and were printed flat on the bed. He then tied them to the side of a jar using Kapton tape and put them in the oven to anneal them for about 10 minutes. This not only strengthened the printed blades, but gave them a permanent curve.
The results demonstrated at the end of the video are quite impressive. [Concrete Dog] says the new blades actually outperform the stock aluminum blades, so he has to re-tune the plane to increase thrust. Hopefully the extra performance will help his spindly bird avoid future airborne altercations.
When it comes to power, people have been trying to 3D print airplane and quadcopter propellers for almost as long as desktop 3D printers have been on the market. With modern materials and high resolution printers, the idea is more practical than ever, although it should be noted that they do not suffer failures very well.
Just a warning for readers with weak stomachs, the video below graphically depicts an innocent rubber band plane being annihilated mid-air by a high-tech RC helicopter. It's a shocking display of airborne class warfare, but the story has a happy ending, as [Concrete Dog] was able to fix his old-school flyer with some very modern technology: a set of propeller blades printed in 3D.
Now, under normal circumstances, 3D printed propellers are a risky prospect. To avoid being torn apart by the incredible rotational forces they will be subjected to, they usually need to be inflated to the point that they become too heavy and performance suffers. The stepped outer surface of the printed blade doesn't help either.
But in a rubber band powered light aircraft obviously things are a bit more relaxed. The thin blades [Concrete Dog] produced on his Prusa Mini appear to be only one or two layers thick and were printed flat on the bed. He then tied them to the side of a jar using Kapton tape and put them in the oven to anneal them for about 10 minutes. This not only strengthened the printed blades, but gave them a permanent curve.
The results demonstrated at the end of the video are quite impressive. [Concrete Dog] says the new blades actually outperform the stock aluminum blades, so he has to re-tune the plane to increase thrust. Hopefully the extra performance will help his spindly bird avoid future airborne altercations.
When it comes to power, people have been trying to 3D print airplane and quadcopter propellers for almost as long as desktop 3D printers have been on the market. With modern materials and high resolution printers, the idea is more practical than ever, although it should be noted that they do not suffer failures very well.
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