Posted by Circuits Arena on Friday, 27 January 2017
Drone Ready to Fly Straight out of the Printer by using 3D-Printed Embedded Electronics is the artlcle explaining Drone Ready to Fly Straight out Researchers at Nanyang University of Technology in Singapore have created a 3D printed drone that is alm...
Drone Ready to Fly Straight out
Researchers at Nanyang University of Technology in Singapore have created a 3D printed drone that is almost completely ready for flight directly from the 3D printer through the printed use of embedded electronics.
3D printing technology has only become popular with manufacturers in the last five years thanks to reduced parts costs, research on printable materials and improvements in technology. The printed technology, despite having more time to manufacture a specific part, has some significant advantages.
Even though these printers take many hours to produce a part, they are in fact one of the most cost-effective and convenient forms of rapid manufacturing techniques with emphasis in prototyping parts.
Imagine the scenario where a company is designing a new product with two teams: the mechanical engineers and the electronics engineers Initially, the electronics team decides on dimensions and screw hole locations which the mechanical engineers take and design a suitable housing from. Halfway throughthe design phase, however, the electronics team decide to use a larger component (for example, a larger electrolytic capacitor) which results in the enclosure not being big enough. This problem may go unnoticed right up until the enclosure design has been received from rapid manufacturing company.
The use of a 3D printer would not only reduce the cost for prototyping for the department, but it would also allow both teams to test out prototypes faster and catch design flaws. I've seen this scenario play out at a place of employment where delays and multiple issues could have been avoided by having a 3D printer available.
3D printers are great for prototyping plastic parts and enclosures but what about a complete product? Is it possible to embed electronics into a 3D-printed design as it is being produced? What about designs that cannot afford to have gaps and screw holes?
Unfortunately, most consumer electronic parts are rated for a temperature range between -40ºC to 125ºC whereas 3D printers can be as hot as 300ºC (depending on the material). This means that if electronics were placed inside a 3D printed design during the printing phase then there would be a good chance that the high temperature would damage components.
If electronics could be implanted during the construction phase, then 3D printing could become a serious form of manufacture for the future.
This is exactly the vision of researchers from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
