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General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has incorporated 3D additive manufacturing into the production of unmanned aircraft systems, under a partnership with US-based digital manufacturing technology company Divergent Technologies.
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General Atomics is working with Divergent to apply the full digital manufacturing process and produce unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), after a company announcement on 15 February.
The Los Angeles-based company has also developed a data-driven approach to design, fabricate, and assemble vehicle structures called the Divergent Adaptive Production System (DAPS).
General Atomics president David R Alexander said the two companies began a joint development program in 2022 to adapt, apply, and qualify Divergent’s automobile industry-qualified technology to General Atomics Aeronautical Systems’ (GA-ASI) aircraft production.
“Throughout our 30 years of designing and developing advanced UAS, GA-ASI has been focused on implementing new capabilities into our manufacturing process,” he said.
“We’re working with Divergent to integrate their technology as part of our additive design and Manufacturing Center of Excellence strategy, with the goal of optimising our design and manufacturing processes and providing next-generation UAS at the lowest cost.”
The DAPS process inspected each printed components by creating a full digital twin of the small UAS and then applied that to a fully automated, tool-less robotic assembly process which took less than 20 minutes to complete. The integrated metal structure was 3D-printed, which led to the reduction of the number of parts of over 95 per cent while meeting weight targets.
Divergent chief executive officer, lead inventor, and founder Kevin Czinger said they have already completed two projects leading to a fully integrated small UAS aerostructure.
“Divergent has invented the first industrial digital manufacturing system,” he said.
“Leveraging innovations in artificial intelligence, 3D printing, and automation; DAPS can be used to build the underlying structure for virtually any vehicle, whether land, sea, air, or space.
“(Vehicles can be built) better, faster and more cost efficiently than traditional manufacturing.”
