Lightweight UAV Engines Made Possible by LPBF

AIE Boosts UAV Rotary Engine Performance with Laser Powder Bed Fusion

The Challenge: Delivering 20 kW Continuous Power at 20,000 ft with an Advanced Air-cooled Rotary Engine

Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAV) demand propulsion systems that are lightweight, reliable, and capable of peak performance at altitude.

AIE’s challenge was to replace the liquid-cooling system with an advanced air-cooled solution for the 225CS rotary engine while still delivering 20 kW of continuous power at 20,000 ft. Achieving this was critical to enhancing UAV mission performance, enabling faster climbs, longer endurance, and dependable operation in the harshest conditions.

The Solution:

Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) Revolutionising UAV Engines Components

AIE partnered with Additure, to unlock the power of the Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) process for critical rotary engine components. Using LPBF, Additure worked closely with the AIE engineers to produce otherwise impossible designs via casting or machining.

The subsequent designs were iteratively manufactured by Additure alongside heat treatment, finishing and the development of inspection and test plans. Additure’s in-house Nikon SLM500 LPBF machine was used to build the additive components at scale.

CNC machining was conducted at Holmbridge Engineering, using the Hermle 5-axis platform to meet the tight tolerances required, before delivery to AIE for coating, final grinding, assembly and engine test.