An innovative approach to a UAV tails structural design for additive manufacturing

The innovative approach used for the design and fabrication of a UAV tails through additive manufacturing (AM) completely changes the concept of designing and manufacturing products through conventional methods. AM based processes can reduces costs, lead times, and increases design freedom, allowing parts to be tailored to specific needs. A key benefit of AM processes is the ability to produce optimized designs with reduced mass and without compromising structural effectiveness. This is possible thanks to the combination of high-performance AM materials and the extraordinary manufacturing capability of AM technologies combined with an appropriate design-for-additive manufacturing (DfAM) approach, overcoming traditional manufacturing techniques. This article presents the development process of a UAV tails, based on a Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) approach in order to reduce structural mass and guarantee safe operation under service loads. Therefore, by replacing the metallic component of the UAV with a techno-polymeric one, several configurations have been developed. The optimal additive configuration achieved a weight reduction of 60% compared to a metal configuration of equivalent volume, without loss of mechanical properties. In conclusion, a feasibility study of the proposed configuration was carried out by 3D printing the vertical tail redesigned.