How 3D Printing Is Making Drones Affordable and Accessible

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. The dawn of the Drone Age has already begun. We hear about these aerial vehicles quite often now. These unmanned flyers have proven themselves to be efficient workers, capable of carrying out precise jobs and are expected to change our world in the most interesting ways. Drones in the sky, in the sea and on the land are now setting examples of how the technology is going to improve our everyday life. So far these unmanned vehicles have been widely used for purposes like journalism, aerial photography, military transport, disaster aid and spraying crops with fertilizers or pesticides. Are you excited about the future where drones will be an integral part of possibly every field? Then, you also deserve to know about another game changer technology; 3D Printing. Also termed as additive manufacturing, the technology is considered to be a genie that creates 3-dimensional physical objects directly from the 3D design. Almost every industry has started evaluating and adopting the technology to reap its benefits. Let's talk about how 3D Printing is making Drones affordable and accessible. Benefits of using 3D Printing for Drone Making Customized Drones: 3D Printing allows you to manufacture personalized products according to an individual's needs and requirements. This increases the feasibility of making customized drones. Any specific part of a store-bought drone can also be tailored to suit your needs. Easy Upgradation: 3D Printing supports upgradation of drone's parts to make it more efficient. Design iterations are very economical with the technology as compared to the traditional ways. This brings in the scope of making many modifications in the 3D design, 3D Printing them and testing the 3D Printed parts till the desired result is achieved. Flexibility and speed do not stand in the way of the experiment. Improved Performance: The weight of a drone affects its flight time. The lighter the drone is, the longer it flies. A light drone has improved battery life, is more responsive and agile during the flight. It also remains stable in case of hard landings or crashes. The 3D Printed parts are made lighter by optimizing the design structures to carry the required weight. The choice of raw material used for 3D Printing also plays an important role in making the parts light. Saves Downtime: You can 3D Print the hard to find spare parts of your drones rather than running in search for them every time they break off in a crash. This would save you from a lot of downtime. Drone Parts that can be 3D Printed Almost everything apart from the electronic components in a drone can be 3D Printed. Following is the list of a few components that I can think of right now: The possibilities of 3D Printing are limited just by imagination. You can add many more functional as well as non-functional accessories to the list. Following is the list of a few companies that have deployed 3D Printing in the process of drone manufacturing. Blue Robotics: This Company based in Southern California adopted 3D Printing for developing their submarine drones. The technology was used for prototyping as well as for manufacturing certain parts of their underwater drone at a low cost without affecting the quality. This helped them test their product in a shorter time, without having to order parts in bulk, which usually happens in other manufacturing processes like injection molding. With the help of 3D designing and 3D Printing the company was able to make a unique product that allowed their underwater drone to operate fully even when submerged in salt water. This Italian company uses 3D Printing to make lightweight components for their drones. It helps them in maximizing the battery power and in increasing the unmanned aerial vehicle's flying time. They use Laser Sintering 3D Printing technique, which allows them to create complex parts even in small quantities. Soleon produces a number of on demand customized drones, made to serve distinct purposes. Recently, they came up with their 3D Printed agricultural pest control drone called SoleonAgro. It is a useful agricultural tool with the look of a wasp. The Netherlands based company Aerialtronics makes drones for applications like livestock monitoring, infrastructure inspection and creative filming. It offers customizable drones with several tailoring options like number of motors, variations of software systems, motor housings, and custom enclosures for hardware and software. Making limited versions via traditional manufacturing options would have been slow and very expensive. Whereas the usage of 3D Printing allows them to go for many design iterations, reducing their R&D cost by approximately 50%. 3D Printing has been able to pave way for many expensive industries to thrive. Drone making companies should definitely welcome this technology to take their product development to the next level. Being able to create the right 3D Design and chose the right material is the key.

1. Where should my weight be when racing a pinewood derby car?

Since it's been a long time since I did pine wood derby, I can give away the secrets. First, polish the axles. The nails should be sanded smooth and then polished until they shine like chrome. You do not want anything to cause friction with the wheel. Coat the ends of the pieces of wood with epoxy resin or soak with a clear lacquer and then apply several more coats until you get a hard smooth high gloss finish. This becomes the inner bearing surface. To allow the removal of the axles, drill out the wood where the nails go and fill with silicone glue. This will hold the nails securely in place and still allow them to be removed and replaced several times for cleaning. Pay special attention to the axle alignment. Every time the wheels rub the inner guide, the car slows down. Make sure it is perfectly aligned with the track at the start line when it is placed on the track. For each of the wheels, make sure they are round and spin true. This means carefully trimming any excess plastic from the mold seams. Use an extremely light oil. Clock or watch type oil or some of the teflon based gun oils will be best. Do not use WD-40. You need some lead for weight. You may want to buy at least a couple kits for spare parts and to allow a selection of the best parts from each kit. It helps a great deal if you have access to an actual track for testing purposes. You need a very accurate scale to weigh the car to assure it is legal but also as close to the legal weight as you can get it. Add a small provision for screws or other removable weight to allow for very small adjustments if needed since the scales used at different races may vary some. Make sure all weights are securely fastened and do not move. The first pinewood derby car I had we stumbled on winning almost by accident. It was a theme and the design of the car ended up with most of the weight to the rear. Then we started thinking about why this car won so much. The following year, we had a much more aerodynamic car with the weight distribution even more to the rear. It was eventually beaten by a car that had virtually all the weight centered over the rear axle. I won with the same car at several competitions over the few years I was in cub scouts. Here is the basic theory behind why it works. What is the last part of the car to leave the slope that provides the acceleration? The back end. To be specific, the rear axle. To explain this, it helps to look at what would happen if all the weight was placed on the front axle. If you put all the weight on the front axle, your accelerating force is off the slope first. Your car literally stops accelerating about 6 inches before it is done leaving the sloped part. Now if we flip the same car around and run it backward, all the weight is over the rear axle and is still on the sloped part of the track even though the front is no longer on the slop and helping with accelerating. This almost gives the car a turbo boost over other cars. It is important to not that the weight has to be over the axle and even slightly forward of the axle to prevent the front wheels from leaving the track. If you put the weight behind the axle, the front of the car will leave the track dragging the rear and slowing it down. Do not forget to pay special attention to the finish of the car. The finish should be as smooth and as polished as the axles. Do not forget to apply a few coats of wax to the painted surface. This includes the bottom of the car. Access to the weights should be through a small panel that covers any rough screws or weight material. Pay extreme attention to all the details of smooth finishes and making sure everything is perfect. If you do everything right, you should at least place if not win. If you do the rocket derby, I can tell you how to win that one as well. Most do not actually read the rules for the rocket derby and the kit does not come with the maximum number of allowed rubber bands. Castor oil does something to rubber bands that allows up to 300 turns. The same attention to detail applies. Shadow Wolf

2. How to remove those extremely tiny screws (read details)?

Go to the dollar store and pick up an eyeglass repair kit. I've never taken apart anything with screws smaller than those tiny screwdrivers could handle. Plus it's got spare parts in case your glasses break. If you wear glasses. Alternatively, an electronics store should sell sets of screwdrivers with tiny heads. I've never actually bought any, but my dad has several sets that I am pretty sure he got at an office supply store (like Office Max).

3. Hey, anybody know where I can find parts for an old Briggs & Stratton engine?

A 3 hp engine modified to produce any amount of real power will not last long before blowing up. Try to find a local go kart shop, or try apskarting.com. A good, highly modified 5 hp block can produce around 20 hp on methanol. If you can find a go kart racer, he (or she) will have lots of spare parts that are still good that they would probably sell you at a reasonable price. Also take a look at Checkeredflagfuels.com. Find or buy a Tillotson carb for serious power