Wing manufacture off 3D print plastic

Hi

Seen as things have been a bit quiet, I thought I'd post a quick review of how I've been making wings using 3D plastic prints.  

Procedure is basically:
1.  Model in CAD the wing.
2.  Make a model of the top half of wing and split this into printable size parts
3.  Make a model wing complete and split this into printable size parts.
4.  3D print the parts and super glue together the bits to make a top wing section and complete wing section.  Fill in any imperfections with putty and sand.
5.  Make the top mould part on former - this is the same as the process with the hot wire cut foam wings - basically the 3D print of the top half gets placed on the former, vacuum down plastic onto wing, gel coat onto plastic, polyester resin and chopped strand onto gelcoat (probably about 6-8mm thick)
6.  to make bottom section, vacuum complete wing profile into the top half mould and gelcoat/polyester/glass again.
7.  Drill holes for bolts around moulds, wax moulds
8. Cast wing with carbon and epoxy, clamp with M6 bolts
9.  Sand to clean up (profiles come out pretty good - only half an hour sanding)

I think it's more accurate than foam cutting   

Yeahhh! Nice process and wonderfull design!

i would get this méthode (how much the machine???????????????)
Good job

Thanks Guys

The machine we have (actually it is my wife's - I subcontract my printing   ) is an Up mini - it can print a block 120mmX120mmX120mm - so luckily it fits most foil parts - wings, stab, mast - all have chords smaller than the max diagonal distance which is about 140mm.

I think the Up Mini Printers are about $700 now

Wow good thinking my foil fool friend down under!   

And I think a more important question is how hard is it to program the profiles, and in to many parts?
Does the plastic hold up to heat when you cure your carbon composit?
Have you considered taking orders and selling, this might work as they seem light and small enough to ship with out to much cost.
I must say your front wing looks most excellent, any chance of specs?
surface area
aspect ratio
profile
length and width
thiickness
layup schedule
Of course I will understand if you choose not to share this info, no worries.
I have made 6 or 7 wings so far the SUPER slow way, my elbow is getting tired of grinding and sanding.
Again, BRAVO!  
dwb

Hey, no worries!

The CAD profiles took a bit of thinking, but really it is pretty easy - you put in the profile at the root, the profile at the tip and the path you want to follow (the "former" shape and plan form) and you "sweep" from one profile to the other. I can do a new wing CAD model in about 20 minutes now! I use Autodesk inventor which you can download a trial version of for free.

The front wing in the pic is about 520cm^2, the root chord about 125mm, tip about 30mm. From memory the aspect ratio is about 6.5 and I think it's about 11mm thick Eppler817 profile.

The layup is (approximately)3K twill outside, 2X12K twill inside cut progressively smaller, and then bits and pieces of whatever carbon offcuts I have with a bit of chopped strand glass near the middle to make up the volume, and same again other side. It's important not to try and overfill the mould because then the flanges don't clamp closed properly.

The 3D printed parts never get hot - they're only to make the mould.

So cool another guy willing to share all he knows, big thanx!
Wing specs perfect, and wow 20 minutes to design a wing using C A D and 3 d printer, Good one! Or good on ya shall I say.
What do you use for mold release on your 3 d printed wing before you mold it with epoxy I assume?
dwb

Hi

for the wing moulds, I vacuum down the mould halves with standard vacuum bag plastic film and then gelcoat on the plastic film. When I tried that with a foam wing the gelcoat chewed through the foam.

I actually made my mast fuselage using 3D printed parts as well, but because the shape of the fuselage is more "bumpy" the vacuum film doesn't suck down enough to follow the profile, so what I did was to stick the printed parts to MDF and then applied PVA paint over the printed part and MDF, and then waxed this PVA surface before gelcoating.

One thing that's important to know with method is that you need a 1:1 print of your wing outline to use to guide you when you glue the bits together - that keeps the overall shape true.

here's a photo of the fuselage printed parts:

stop copie the sword, the back is totaly unusefull (platform of the rear wing)  
Thats to narrow and provoque a risk of unstability
Sword is the best in racing only because they have the best riders  
The new sword will be différent in a short time

Thanks Franck - always grateful to get feedback from the master

I didn't want to change too much from my first foil - I moved the front wing backwards towards the mast and thinned down the fuselage.

next sword will also have the mast more in front (good idée)and it's easyer in the turns;i already try the prototype

to go back on 3d printing, its possible to use this method without printer: many suppliers on the web to "print" our plans for few euros. The only point is to cut big shapes into several parts.

Phezulu1, have you thought about printing with a honeycomb structure ?
See https://kitefoil.forumactif.org/t822-repfoil-le-foil-imprime-en-plastique

xav83 a écrit:

to go back on 3d printing, its possible to use this method without printer: many suppliers on the web to "print" our plans for few euros. The only point is to cut big shapes into several parts.

Would you have a few links ? I might be wrong but I remember around 200USD or EUR for a front wing...


To be completed:
It wouldn't be a bad thing  to buy Phezu's "Plug and Play " UP mini - only 12 cm x 12 cm printing size though   

In Europe:
999 EUR in France

In the US:
600 USD + shpg on Amazon


It's possible to double the printing surface buying a construction kit
The remarkable Prusa I3 rework (Iteration 3) 20cm x 20 cm printing area



Europe:
Spain: 550 Eur
France: 550 Eur

USA:
tbd

If I was buying a printer now, I'd be buying an UP Plus 2 printer - print space is 140X140X140mm and the layer resolution is very good.



For anyone buying a printer - it's a bit more tricky than plug and play - you need to fiddle with the settings and calibration to get a good surface finish.

One other thing, the "honeycomb" interior is done by the printing software itself (no need to do anything in the CAD model), you can set how dense the honeycomb is and how thick the skin is, this way you save a lot of plastic as the parts are very light.

francky a écrit:

Sword is the best in racing only because they have the best riders Very Happy

And why the best riders choose Sword ?  

new sword is coming sooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!     

not only new sword   

Photo of new sword!



The plywood one I made my son today!

Gotcha   

Hi ! Very Nice ! I did my mast like this ! Can you share this Wing !??
Thanks !!!

Hi,
did you print with PLA or ABS ?
How did the surface turned out ?

I bought myself a printer, the prices are so low I could not resist :-)

tks

Kosta

Very nice ! How do you close the mold parts without loosing the epoxy/carbon content from the top mold? and how do you decide you have fill up the molds enough but not too much?