“[It] really helped accelerate our design and manufacturing process,” he said. “Our design was changing so much over the past year that we had new designs almost weekly. With 3D printing, we were able to have a new version within 24 hours if we needed it.”
Drone Shows
If you’ve never seen a drone show, do yourself a favor and watch the video above. The basic idea is to fly drones equipped with LEDs in formation in order to create images and patterns visible from the perspectives of those on the ground—like fireworks in slow motion. Ryan Sigmon, co-founder of Firefly, explained the company’s approach to managing so many drones at once.
“They're actually flown from a single computer by a single pilot,” he said. “Everything is pre-programmed and pre-choreographed to be at a very specific place at a very specific time. That's what creates this synchronized show. These drones are accurate up to one centimeter, which really allows us to get very creative with the different designs and animations that you create in the sky, because the drones can be placed exactly where you want them to be.”
Not surprisingly, this sort of coordination isn’t easy with off-the-shelf hardware. That’s why Firefly elected to manufacture its drones in-house. “Everything from the windings on the motor to the GPS unit we're using to the LED on the bottom were all custom designed specifically for drone shows,” Dorosz said. Unfortunately, in terms of production volume, Firefly has what many manufacturers might call an ugly number.
Currently, Firefly has a fleet of 120 drones, which is an awkward number for conventional manufacturing—for example, it’s much too small to justify injection molding. Additive manufacturing, however, fits comfortably in this space while offering the added benefit of fast turnaround. “We were able to print all new components for all 120 of the drones in our fleet within 48 hours, which was amazing,” Dorosz said.
3D Printing Drones
Firefly went through many iterations before finalizing the design for its show drones. “I lost track because it became such a regular thing,” Dorosz said. “I think it took somewhere between six to ten designs to finally get to this version.” Of course, multiple design iterations are where 3D printing shines.
But, as Firefly learned, the technology is rapidly finding its footing beyond prototyping and moving into production. “Before I knew much about the 3D printing process, I really didn't understand how durable 3D printing could be,” Dorosz said. “With the help of EOS, they were able to recommend a processing material that was suitable: not only durable, but [it] had to be light too. And this was perfect for us.”
Firefly printed its parts out of PA-2200 using EOS’ FORMIGA P110 industrial polymer 3D printer. “Durability was definitely a concern for us, not only in operation, but also for packaging and transport,” Dorosz commented. Not quite a commodity resin, but certainly not an engineered one, EOS’ PA 2200— based on polyamide 12—proved suitable for Firefly’s needs.
“Plastic is a very good material to work with because it’s relatively cheap,” commented Martin Flueckiger, Technical Support Engineer at EOS. “Once you find the geometry you want, you can change the material to improve strength or get a different melting point for flame-resistant parts.” In addition, the tolerances on the P110 proved more than adequate. “On our P110, we can hold tolerances of about 0.004 in or 0.1 mm,” Flueckiger said.
Additive Manufacturing for Production
Over the past few decades, 3D printing has cut its teeth through prototyping, but even in the early days of the technology, the tantalizing possibilities for production applications were obvious. It’s taken time to make the leap from prototyping to short runs and one-offs, but Firefly’s story represents a significant bridge between where 3D printing has been and where it’s headed in the future.
Asked if he believes Firefly could make 1,000, 10,000 or even 100,000 parts using additive manufacturing, Flueckieger’s response was an enthusiastic affirmative. “To build epic quantities, that’s where laser sintering is going: we’re at the stage where we’re going into manufacturing.”
To learn more, visit the EOS website.
EOS has sponsored this post. All opinions are mine. --James Anderton