On this occasion we have to talk about a new work carried out by a team of engineers and designers made up of personnel from the Russian Institute of Aviation Materials and the Russian Advanced Research Foundation. In it, as announced, a fully functional motor for a small-scale drone has been designed and manufactured using 3D printing.
This is not the first major project carried out by the Russian Institute of Aviation Materials since they have been working and developing 3D printing material since 2015, when they managed to manufacture the first internal generator which would later be installed in the internal combustion chamber of a turbine for the turbo-ventilated PD-14 engine, a new generation unit.
They manage to develop a motor for drones manufactured by 3D printing.
Considering the more technical part of this project, it seems that a own 3D printing methodology developed by the Russian Institute of Aviation Materials itself, where laser technology and metal powder mixtures are used to achieve heat-resistant aluminum alloys.
As the current director of the Russian Aviation Materials Institute has commented, the methodology developed by its engineers is capable of 3D printing an engine with unique parameters impossible to achieve using traditional methods such as conventional molding. We have a clear example of this in that the Engine combustion walls are only 0,3mm thick, parameters impossible to achieve using traditional techniques.
As a final detail, it should be noted that this motor for drones created by 3D printing, in addition to certain unique characteristics, also stands out for another series of parameters such as its weight, of only 900 grams or for being capable of provide a thrust of 75 kilograms which, according to its developers, can be increased up to 150 kilograms without having to increase its weight.