UAV Helicopter Blades Manufacturing (LIAZ a.s. success story)
Our customers keep on challenging us to step out of our comfort zone. We are asked to make bigger propellers in shapes we would have never expected to be manufacturing. We have already manufactured a propeller for a wind turbine that was 6 m in diameter and another project we really enjoyed was manufacturing rotors for Skyspotter 150 - a fully autonomous and self-sufficient medium-range UAV system with rotary wing design manufactured by LIAZ a.s.
How did we manufacture the blades?
The task from LIAZ a.s. was clear: “Use current drawings of our main and tail rotors and use your manufacturing skills to provide us with a complete solution.” Our technical team with decades of carbon fiber blades manufacturing experience have investigated the current propeller setup for Skyspotter and concluded that we are able to successfully complete the task.
The main rotor was two bladed with about 3.2m diameter. This size is manufacturable using our standard tooling and layering process, but we had to consider auto-rotation factors that are not usual for UAV propellers. After few prototyping iterations we have come up with internal structure using polyurethane core and the final propellers were lighter and sturdier than the original ones. After our customer had tested the blades, we have received a very positive feedback and the business relationship and collaboration on projects with this customer is ongoing.
Mejzlik team are helping us with the production of the main and tail rotors. They react fast upon our requirements which arise during the testing. We are glad that we have found a partner who has so much experience with CF blades and can therefore guide us. – Libor Horáček, LIAZ a.s.
How do we differ to our competitors?
After we manufactured the blades, we started assessing whether this newly acquired skill in producing UAV helicopter rotors could be interesting to other platform manufacturers. We have realized that this situation is very similar to the one that we had seen with the mid-size UAV market. In the UAV Helicopter market, there are many small-scale RC rotors for 3D helicopters and rotors for full-size helicopters are either made by using very expensive techniques or made in-house by the helicopter manufacturers.
Our ability to manufacture the blades by using our current and over the time proven technologies has proven to be the perfect fit in the UAV Helicopter market. Apart from our long history in propeller manufacturing, we have an experience in producing propellers for the largest civil and military UAV manufacturers in the market; this is why we are 100% committed to the quality of our products and processes. As we do all the manufacturing steps in house, we are flexible in customization of the internal structure, external blade design and we can adjust to most testing requirements. We pride in delivering Mejzlik-quality products without compromise.
What happens next?
We can manufacture the UAV helicopter blades according to a 3D model delivered by a customer or have a new design made by our partner engineering company. We design our UAV propellers using mathematical models based on Blade Element Momentum and Vortex theory. Currently, we are working on a new software that will add noise simulation as well as optimization. This software will also simulate the design and the noise of a helicopter rotors. We are expecting to introduce this to our customers at beginning of next year.
Are you looking for a reliable UAV helicopter blades manufacturer? Contact us for more information.
