Ultimate Quadcopter Design for AM - version 4

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The extreme use of AM design rules exhibits grid structures with no other manufacturing technology able to match this advantage. In this design, a carefully chosen unit cell fills the model's core, specifically an elementary cell designed to resist bending by balancing tensile and compressive loads. This allows for the removal of unnecessary material, reducing twisting potential. Lattice designs open up numerous possibilities, leading to new 'digital' materials. Here, we focus on adjusting the model solely by modifying the beam diameter while keeping length, unit cell, and outer shell fixed. The lightweight structure results in a 43% reduced density for an aspect ratio of 1:2 (diameter 0.7mm and beam length 1.4mm), leading to a mass reduction from 32g to 14g. Complex patterns require soluble support material and AM expertise with lattice structures. Each AM technology has its limitations, such as FDM's ability to achieve an aspect ratio of 1:2 for safe mass reduction potential of 26% (density 26%, potentially ~8.5g) for an aspect ratio of 1:3, or 17% density for an aspect ratio of 1:4. Please refer to file #2 for the challenge.