Adaptive Corporation, in partnership with Sinclair Community College, has been awarded a contract by the US Air Force to develop a process that leverages Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and our experience with Carbon Fiber Composite 3D Printing. This project will develop a solution to predict the 
performance of 3D Printed propellers that will be used on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s).
Adaptive’s experience with Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE platform and Simulation, coupled with our Additive Manufacturing expertise based on the Markforged Carbon Fiber Composite 3D printers were recognized in this award. Adaptive will take propeller designs provided by Sinclair and develop a variety of 3D printed models with various infill and Carbon Fiber reinforcement. These designs will be simulated on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to predict real-world part performance.
At the same time, these parts will be 3D printed on Markforged printers. Afterward, Sinclair will perform laboratory tests of the physical parts. Adaptive and Sinclair will correlate the physical testing with the simulation output to develop an approach that can offer a high degree of accuracy for simulating these parts under real-world applications.
Tim Weatherford of Adaptive Corporation said, “…our goal is to perfectly predict propeller performance of 3D printed propellers for UAV applications in real-world environments. Our approach and toolset around Design for Additive helps engineering teams remove cost out of the process and shorten development cycles by designing right the first time.”
Contact us to learn more about our Design for Additive Solutions.
