Application of Additive Manufacturing to the production of RPAV components

The current work is based on the activity of “Team S55”, an engineering student team of the Politecnico di Torino, that has the aim of building a remotely piloted (RPAV) 1:8 scaled model of the Savoia Marchetti S55X, an iconic seaplane made famous by a series of record-breaking long-distance flights. Advanced materials and innovative technologies have been used to comply with the weight requirement of the FAI-F4C competition, imposed at 15 kg empty weight without batteries. The purpose of this work is to show the advantages of the application of Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) and Selective Laser Melting (SLM) during the construction process. The FDM process is applied to the production of molds for the composite (carbon fiber) parts. To reduce the weight and cost of the mold, topological optimization was used to calibrate the typical process parameters such as infill density and internal fill path considering the constraints imposed by the polymerization process with vacuum bag. The SLM process of aluminium alloy AlSi10Mg has been selected to manufacture the engine support of the seaplane.