if you were to go out today and fly the
plane and it comes down hard and you
break a piece we can come back here we
can hit print get the piece out of the
printer snap it into place
and we’re ready to fly again immediately
right right
so the razor is a fully 3d printed UAV
designed from the ground up to take
advantage of 3d printing technology its
full airframe everything including the
skin is 3d printed we’ve gone through a
few iterations on this aircraft not only
structurally but also aerodynamically
and the 3d printing process has allowed
us to do that very rapidly and very
easily we can design the system on the
computer we can analyze it we can do
flight simulations we can model that in
a CAD program and then that model
transfers directly to the 3d printer 3d
printing is a very interesting process
and the best way to think about this or
visualize it is to think of your normal
inkjet printer at home when it goes back
and forth it’s dropping little drops of
ink to create a 2-dimensional image now
imagine that it drops little drops of
plastic instead now when it goes back
and forth it’s actually creating a
three-dimensional object
if we tried to build this airplane five
or ten years ago without the
capabilities of 3d printing we would be
building a conventional aircraft and
they are usually all hand-built
they’re very labor intensive 3d printed
airplane can truly be built completely
autonomously we’ve simplified the
assembly process so it’s really a matter
of clicking together a couple of parts
somebody asks you what are you doing
this summer and I get to tell them I’m
working on developing a fully autonomous
drone and guess what we 3d printed it
and that’s just a really cool thing to
say because it’s on the cutting edge of
so many different technologies all at
the same time
plane and it comes down hard and you
break a piece we can come back here we
can hit print get the piece out of the
printer snap it into place
and we’re ready to fly again immediately
right right
so the razor is a fully 3d printed UAV
designed from the ground up to take
advantage of 3d printing technology its
full airframe everything including the
skin is 3d printed we’ve gone through a
few iterations on this aircraft not only
structurally but also aerodynamically
and the 3d printing process has allowed
us to do that very rapidly and very
easily we can design the system on the
computer we can analyze it we can do
flight simulations we can model that in
a CAD program and then that model
transfers directly to the 3d printer 3d
printing is a very interesting process
and the best way to think about this or
visualize it is to think of your normal
inkjet printer at home when it goes back
and forth it’s dropping little drops of
ink to create a 2-dimensional image now
imagine that it drops little drops of
plastic instead now when it goes back
and forth it’s actually creating a
three-dimensional object
if we tried to build this airplane five
or ten years ago without the
capabilities of 3d printing we would be
building a conventional aircraft and
they are usually all hand-built
they’re very labor intensive 3d printed
airplane can truly be built completely
autonomously we’ve simplified the
assembly process so it’s really a matter
of clicking together a couple of parts
somebody asks you what are you doing
this summer and I get to tell them I’m
working on developing a fully autonomous
drone and guess what we 3d printed it
and that’s just a really cool thing to
say because it’s on the cutting edge of
so many different technologies all at
the same time
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