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?
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?