One of our clients recently approached us to see if we could manufacture a set of propeller blades for their exhibition at this years Cheltenham Science festival. Of course we accepted the challenge and the results were amazing
Our blades combined with the fantastic engineering skills of the engineers at Dowty Propellers came together in the form of a superb display piece which shows clearly how the mechanics inside a propeller hub, are designed to allow the propeller blades to change blade pitch as the whole assembly rotates.
For us, not only did the propeller blades need to be tough and able to withstand the rotational forces that they would see by rotating at speeds in excess of 400 RPM, but they needed to be of exceptional quality and appearance to give some resemblance to and do justice to the magnificent blades manufactured in Cheltenham by the highly skilled workforce at Dowty Propellers.
Our set of 4 blades were to be 12″ long and to be supplied with a threaded attachment in the base to allow secure attachment to the hub.
We selected ABS (Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) as the material for printing these blades as it has good mechanical properties. It can also be machined easily if necessary using standard shop tools (we needed to add a thread) and also unlike PLA, ABS can be sanded without tearing, allowing us to achieve the kind of finish we were looking for.
ABS however is not as easy to print as PLA, it melts at a higher temperature than PLA and results can be mixed and a little less predictable than when printing with PLA. However with a few adjustments to the printer settings, the blades were produced.
The finish at this point was fairly good, however in order to produce a perfectly smooth finish prior to final painting, there were many hours of hand finishing.
When perfectly smooth, the blades were given an acrylic matt black top coat before detailing the tips in Yellow:
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The final rig was designed and assembled by our customer. It was designed with a see through acrylic hub to show how the propeller pitch is changed. Pitch changing is done on actual aircraft to prevent the propeller from over-speeding, this can have catastrophic consequences as blades can release.
Below is the finished assembly as shown at the Cheltenham Science Festival:
Video below shows pitch changing with blades not rotating:
Video shows rotating propeller pitch changing:
If you have a project that you would like us to take a look at then do not hesitate to contact us
If you want to see the Dowty propellers display rig in action the get down to the Cheltenham Science festival 2016
