Nonplanar Technique for 3D Printing Wings

This work develops a technique for printing an unmanned aerial vehicle wing with its span parallel to the build plate using material extrusion. Stair-stepping from planar additive manufacturing often leads a designer to choose a vertical build orientation; however, this limitation can now be overcome by leveraging recent advances in nonplanar printing techniques. This paper documents available nonplanar methods and demonstrates the use of nonplanar slicing combined with gcode post-processing to print a wing lying down. The advantages of this technique are the potential for faster printing times, improved resistance to bending along the wing’s span, and open access to internal components. The disadvantages of this technique are larger time requirements in the design and slicing phases, the need for a large support structure or complex build platform, and additional post-processing of the printed wing. By presenting this technique, this paper expands the available design space for engineers producing small-scale aircraft with material extrusion.