The Drone Bird Company has developed a line of drones that mimic birds of prey like falcons in both outward appearance and flight pattern. These drone birds can be purchased or hired as a service to scare away real birds from airports, farms, power plants and other settings where their presence could be a nuisance or a hazard. The fuselages for these drones were initially produced through hand layup of glass fiber and epoxy which was time-consuming and not scalable. The Drone Bird Company worked with Parts on Demand to move into production through selective laser sintering (SLS) 3D printing, ultimately adopting a glass sphere-filled polymer from Advanced Laser Materials (ALM) to achieve lightweight, durable drone bodies that can be made repeatably at scale.
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LEARN MORE ABOUT
The Drone Bird Company https://www.thedronebird.com/
Parts on Demand, contract manufacturer for 3D printed components of this drone https://partsondemand.eu/
Advanced Laser Materials (ALM), the EOS subsidiary that supplies the glass-filled material https://www.advancedlasermaterials.com/
Another example of a drone that relies on 3D printing, in this case both metal and polymerhttps://www.additivemanufacturing.media/articles/drones-take-flight-with-metal-and-polymer-3d-printed-parts-the-cool-parts-show-bonus-
Other examples where 3D printing makes use of biomimicry of:
shark scales https://www.additivemanufacturing.media/articles/its-shark-week-on-the-cool-parts-show
structures inside butterfly wings https://www.additivemanufacturing.media/articles/3d-printed-heat-exchanger-uses-gyroids-for-better-cooling-the-cool-parts-show-43
snail shells https://www.additivemanufacturing.media/articles/concept-sneaker-boasts-one-piece-3d-printed-tpu-construction
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0:00 3D Printed Drone Bird
0:54 What is the Drone Bird?
2:34 Why does it work?
3:58 Considerations for Manufacturing
6:10 Why 3D Printing for Production
7:05 Why Selective Laser Sintering
8:20 Venturing into New Materials
10:35 Optimizing the Design
12:25 How Production is Changing
14:17 Why is the Drone Bird Cool?