QLS 820

SmartDrone - Increasing throughput by shifting production to Quantum Laser Sintering

The components of the Discovery 2 platform by Smartdrone are varied and include carbon fiber and machined aluminum components, but the external body is 3D printed using PA 12. Additive Manufacturing allows the team to maintain an agile product development and production process. “We move very quickly in our design and design iterations so tooling something up like this would be very difficult to do with injection molding” says Chris McKulsky, SmartDrone’s Engineering Lead. While AM was an obvious solution out of the gate, McKulsky and the team ultimately have a desire to scale up production more economically by bringing a higher throughput SLS printer in house.