Small series of drone plastic parts

Be it for video production, security or measurement applications, the drone (or UAV) economy has been booming these past few years. New technologies emerged really fast on the market, with contentious improvements and new capabilities for the end users. It then rapidly raised security issues and every country implemented and adapted their legislation to control and secure the use of drone. According to determined flying scenarios and machine specifications, the use of parachute became compulsory.  We have been prototyping parachute drone parts a client in the drone industry.

The client and its requirements

Our client is a French engineering consulting company in the environment of drones, dedicated to develop solution to approve drone in regard to legislation. In particular, they develop parachute solutions. When manufacturing drones, weight and resistance are major issues. Aesthetics and aero-dynamism will come along.  The main challenge of this project was then to choose a light-weight but strong material that can be well processed and adapted for a nice finishing.

The production of the plastic parts

The first stage of the project was to validate the proper material for the 7 plastic parts that will have to be manufactured. Using a silicon mold (vacuum casting) was the most suitable and cost-efficient solution as we can test several resins using the same silicon mold. We were then able to send our client several plastic samples made out of materials with different level of resistance and mechanical properties: Hecast 8050, Axon PX5210, Axon PX223HT, injected polycarbonate etc. After testing by the client, PU similar ABS was selected for both its properties and ability to be painted. We then launched the next stage, a batch production of 50 pieces for each of the 7 parts. Red and black colors were used for the paint finishing. Here is an example of 3 out of the 7 prototype parts produced :