Titomic produces world’s largest titanium UAV
Jeff Lang (left) and Elias Baini hold the titanium UAV prototype at Australia’s Avalon Airshow 2019 (Courtesy Titomic)
Titomic Ltd, located near Melbourne, Australia, has produced what it believes is the largest titanium Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Built using its Titomic Kinetic Fusion™ (TKF) Additive Manufacturing technology at the company’s R&D Bureau in Melbourne, the prototype UAV measures more than 1.8 metres in diameter.
Thanks to its high strength-to-weight ratio, the use of titanium provides the UAV with a strong, lightweight, ruggedised design and ballistics protection, which will provide durability for reliable in-field use by military and law enforcement and is well-suited for deployment in live combat situations. As titanium’s use is often prohibitively expensive and difficult to fabricate using traditional methods, the prototype is said to demonstrate Titomic’s ability to additively manufacture parts from high-performance materials.
Titomic believes that its TKF technology is widely applicable to the defence industry and can be used to create further parts such as armaments, traditionally created through metal casting, resulting in reduced production time and increased output. Titomic’s Managing Director, Jeff Lang, stated, “We’re excited to be working with the global defence industry to combine Australian resources, manufacturing and innovation which will increase our sovereign capability to provide further modern technology for Australia and its defence force.”
Titomic Kinetic Fusion was co-developed with, and is licenced from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). The patented metal AM process uses supersonic deposition of metal powders to manufacture metal parts and complex surface coatings in super alloys and dissimilar metals such as nickel, copper, scandium, and alloys such as stainless steel, inconel, and tungsten carbide.
