UAVOS has designed and manufactured a new high-performance curing oven that meets the company’s specific composite process requirements for manufacturing components for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The oven provides the ability to cure various materials of complex contours, shapes, and sizes, as well as providing fast heat-up rates and cycle times and superior temperature uniformity.
The out of autoclave (OOA) composite curing oven is electrically heated, and designed with a combination airflow arrangement that ensures even and uniform heat distribution throughout the chamber with quicker heating rates and recovery times. The curing oven’s work chamber measures 466 mm wide by 2050 mm long by 502 mm high, and has a maximum operating temperature of 200°C. Guaranteed temperature uniformity is ±5°C at a set point of 200°C. The oven utilises both horizontal and vertical upward airflow in order to maximize heating rates and temperature uniformity.
The curing process for composite materials includes bagging and putting the parts under a vacuum while being cured. The features of the oven include the ability to make tubular and cylindrical shapes due to adjustable rotation for even distribution of resin on composite products and formation of ideal geometry. Software control provides optimization of airflow, heat transfer, and overall oven performance, as well as data collection, with an intuitive interface that maximises usability and process feedback.
Aliaksei Stratsilatau, CEO and Lead Developer at UAVOS, commented: “We’ve developed and manufactured the curing oven to meet our own production needs. This technology allows us to produce UAV components with extreme strength and light weight. Moreover, we are glad that we can increase the production capacity of the companies which are involved in production of the composite parts. Our team is able to work with clients to engineer a custom curing oven to meet their sizing and options requirements.”
