Evaluation of additive manufacturing techniques for fabrication of propellers for SUAVs

Abstract

Small unmanned aerial vehicles (SUAVs) find wide-ranging civilian and military applications. The use of additive manufacturing (3D printing) in fabricating small propellers was explored in this work. The effect of material (ABS) fill ratio on the performance of 3-D printed propellers was studied. It was noted that due to changes in material density, the flexibility of the propeller changed, which was reflected it in the amount of thrust produced and noise generated by these propeller. A custom built Arduino based printer was used for the fabrication and showed promising results for additive manufacturing of custom built propellers used in SAUVs. Extensive testing showed feasibility of flightworthy propellers produced through additive manufacturing.