• Welcome aboard HomebuiltAirplanes.com, your destination for connecting with a thriving community of more than 10,000 active members, all passionate about home-built aviation. Dive into our comprehensive repository of knowledge, exchange technical insights, arrange get-togethers, and trade aircrafts/parts with like-minded enthusiasts. Unearth a wide-ranging collection of general and kit plane aviation subjects, enriched with engaging imagery, in-depth technical manuals, and rare archives.

    For a nominal fee of $99.99/year or $12.99/month, you can immerse yourself in this dynamic community and unparalleled treasure-trove of aviation knowledge.

    Embark on your journey now!

    Click Here to Become a Premium Member and Experience Homebuilt Airplanes to the Fullest!

3D printing wing ribs?

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Jan 27, 2012
Messages
1,508
Location
Glendale, CA
Hello All,

Curious as to what peoples thoughts are on if 3D printed wing ribs would work. My guess is there would be a hit in weight but unsure as they could be optimized in any way without the need to think about MFG constraints. I recently bought a large format 3D printer (Formbot Trex 2+) and its flat out amazing. My build envelope is 400mm x 400mm x 500mm and I use it every day at work which got me to thinking about this idea. I have a Bearhawk LSA wing modeled up in Solidoworks and may just print a nose rib to see how much it weighs. I'd likely need to modify it a bit in thickness and maybe just add the stiffeners to the design instead riveted as done on the original. Ie a one piece rib monocoque structure with all integrated additional supports in one print. At the flange where it attaches to the spar, I could add a bit of a boss for the rivet to seat against or a thin piece of aluminum could be in the sandwich just to give some metal for the pop rivet to seat against.

My only concern is heat from the sun causing warpage, but there are some high temp materials that do well in heat. Also some guys printed some outboard motor props in multiple materials fully expecting them to delaminate and explode, and of the 5 materials they used only one failed and the boat was able to run on plane at the same speed they saw with the original aluminum prop.

My machine is not big enough, but I could easily repurpose it with a larger build volume or build the ribs in multiple pieces....

Thoughts?
 
Back
Top