Pieces and Parts

[Badland-F5 Pilot]

With the advent of 3D printing, we are now able to make parts at home that are applicable to aircraft. This means the parts are light weight, strong, and inexpensive (not including the printer, printing material, and time it takes to learn the process). The forums co-founder and I are in the process of prototyping some ideas we've come up with for pieces and parts for our ultralights. For those wondering if this technology is worth getting into, that'll all depend on how good you are with computers, CAD programs, and dealing with frustration! Yes, frustration should actually top the list of deterrents for 3D printing. Though the technology has come down in price to a very reasonable level, this usually is at the sacrifice of high reliability and quality. So far with my 3D printer I've had about a 1/10th success rate. Meaning that for each time I have a successful (or acceptable) print, I've tossed 9 others that didn't work. This mind you is only the print itself. The design could be perfectly acceptable, but something would go wrong with the print. There are no less than about 30 critical settings when moving a design from the CAD software over to the printer software, and then into the printer. In reality there are more than 100 selections in the printer software that have to be near perfectly selected. More than anything, 3D printing takes time, a lot of time. Printing is not instant or like a paper printer. I've had small designs take 14+ hours to print. I've got one going right now (which is actually just a toy for one of my grand nieces that's going on 18 hours), and it's only 61% done. The toy being printed is being printed with a plastic filament that is very difficult to print with, very finicky about the printers heat and movement settings.

The first step to any new item to add to an ultralight aircraft of course is the idea. Many ideas translate over from GA and LSA aircraft. However unless you have deep pockets, purchasing some of the existing items is crazy outrageous. Why? One word – Certification. GA and LSA do not have the luxury of being able to install many items that are not certified for flight use. That is unless they are experimental, which we could actually say that all ultralights are. We have the “permission” to install whatever we want on our aircraft, without getting approval from the FAA. Even experimental aircraft have to go through an FAA approval process before the pilot can carry a passenger. Ultralights don’t have this requirement simply because we don’t carry anyone but ourselves.

So what are we in the process of designing? Well I can’t go into that too much as we’re keeping some secrets to ourselves. I can tell you about a wheel made completely out of printed plastic, and it is strong. The idea here is, as with most items for ultralights is to make the wheel as light as possible. This wheel is being tested by Badland Aircraft. I’m not exactly sure what the plans are for use, but as I’m not the designer. I was only asked to print the wheel. I have seen the wheel with a tire on it, and it’s freaking awesome looking. It weighs in at only 2.8oz. It’s for an 8” light weight tire.

3D printing is allowing the design of everything from simple placards and custom labels to actual aircraft parts that can be replaced with this light weight material. You may ask, what about strength and durability? The materials being created with 3D printing are very strong. There are many different types. I’m just about ready to start working with a material that should be very strong – Carbon Fiber. Yes, carbon fiber has been incorporated into 3D printing material. I’ve seen a hobbyist race car driver in the UK make an intake manifold out of carbon fiber material. Many online are now calling carbon fiber 3D printing material – Black Aluminum because of the materials strength. Though not as strong as aluminum, the carbon fiber material is lighter and suitable in many applications.

Simpler items can also be created. I will most likely have my instruments labeled with placards I’ve designed and 3D printed. Visors, handles, cable and electrical clips and retainers, and many other items can be made with this method.
The CAD programs used to create the items are becoming easier and easier to use, and in a few cases they are free!

The process is slow, but all design work from prototype to final product take time. I’m looking forward to designing and building items to be used in my ultralight.

More to come as we make progress on design and printing of UL parts.

[broughtonkicks]

This is all very intriguing Todd. When I was doing flight training in OR last year, one of the pilots there was doing a lot of 3D printing for custom parts/accessories for his plane. This type of technology is way outside of my wheelhouse, so I defer to the "experts". I'd love to see what you have come up with since this original post 2 years ago.
What happened with the wheel that was "only 2.8oz. ...for an 8” light weight tire" that was being tested by Badland Aircraft? Is it available?

~Barry

[Badland-F5 Pilot]

This is all very intriguing Todd. When I was doing flight training in OR last year, one of the pilots there was doing a lot of 3D printing for custom parts/accessories for his plane. This type of technology is way outside of my wheelhouse, so I defer to the "experts". I'd love to see what you have come up with since this original post 2 years ago.
What happened with the wheel that was "only 2.8oz. ...for an 8” light weight tire" that was being tested by Badland Aircraft? Is it available?

~Barry

I'm not sure what Chris ever did with the plastic rim for testing. I know he mounted it. He designed the rim, I think in Fusion 360. I tried to learn Fusion, but I had a lot of difficulty. I'm just not that far along. Here's the wheel in my printer slicer (the program that creates a print file for the printer from the design model).

Pre-Slice.png (81.9 KiB) Viewed 6 times

The print came out really well. I was surprised that it worked at all. I had only printed a few things, but the rim came out great.

Peer and I have tried a few things too. At first, I thought I could print a wing end, customizing it to have a droop or fence built into it. The problem we ran into is the size. The part would have to be printed in four different pieces and then epoxied together. The entire project ended up being way over my head. I did get the first part created in Fusion with some paid for tutoring. I was able to print it and send it off to Peer for fitting.

This would be the cap that fits over the wind end. On the outside would be either a droop, a fence, or anything else we decided to create. We didn't get any further on this project, but I did learn a lot.

Next we tried a flapperon end with a droop. This was really interesting because it is very complex, a lot of curves. Peer carved one out of balsa and sent it to me. I used photogrammetry (taking many pictures of the flapperon and then letting the computer compile it into a usable model) to create the data file and model it. I had to adjust size, fix holes and other issues, but I finally got it done. You may be able to tell by looking at the two below images that there's a flat side. This is the side that would attach to the plane's flapperon. Then the flapperon end droops down to help prevent air from flowing around the end of the flapperon. The idea (the same we had with the wing end) is to add control by preventing the wing vortex that happens at the end of wings. This one may pick up again as it was somewhat successful.

flapperon1.png (59.86 KiB) Viewed 6 times

flapperon2.png (51.74 KiB) Viewed 6 times

The last print we've done is an end cap. Kurt has a friend that created an end cap for the spar in the wings. The cap helps prevent water/dirt from going down the spar tube when the wings are folded back. Kurt provided the printer files, but I had trouble with them. I could see them in the slicer program, but I couldn't create the printer file for whatever reason. I ended up making my own after Peer sent me the dimensions. I sent out one test cap, and it was very close. The problem we found is that I had used .PLA plastic to print the cap. This is a hard plastic and it was just a 1mm too small in diameter. While talking with Peer about the issue, I thought of another type of plastic for the printer that remains flexible. It's more like rubber than plastic. I printed two of those up with slightly different types of the rubber type material and sent them off yesterday to him. These are really simple design. Peer will cut and fit them, and we'll make improvements from that point on.

SparCap.png (37.94 KiB) Viewed 6 times

With a little more work, this may be our first success with using the 3D printer for an actual useful product for the planes.

I've created and printed many parts for other things, but getting one that will work with the planes is much more complex. I am enjoying doing the work, but it is very time consuming through the entire process.

Todd

[broughtonkicks]

Wow! Very Impressive work!
Please keep us in the loop if you come up with any other weight saving innovations!

[Badland-F5 Pilot]

Wow! Very Impressive work!
Please keep us in the loop if you come up with any other weight saving innovations!

Yes indeed. That's pretty much the plan. Design, test, break, re-design until it's right and then offer it to Badland pilots on request and covering material cost. I'm not looking to make a profit. I'm interested in promoting the sport for Badland pilots and squadron.