Joe Cloonan packs sand covering the mold to ensure an close match with the original
Flying a drone in a civil environment with clear skies can eventually take a toll on a drone. But flying a drone in less than desirable weather such a storm with strong winds can greatly impact the life expectancy of this life-saving hardware. This became evident when a bad landing caused one of the landing legs of the drone to break rendering it useless! Although a factory manufactured replacement leg is cheap, only costing a few bucks, the material is a relatively flimsy plastic which would most likely break during the next bad landing. So, the Carova Land Rescue Team and the Carova Sea Rescue Team got together and decided we could make a drone leg better than the original.
We hatched an idea to overcome this problem and the solution was to use a manufacturing technique called casting to make the leg out of lightweight but durable aluminium. Casting is done by making a box and tightly packing the box with red casting sand and then placing the object we wish to cast halfway into the red sand. With the object half impressed into the red casting sand a second box is made and placed on top the original box. Red casting sand is then packed into the second box until the object is pressed into the top box as well.
Next, the two boxes are seperated and the object is removed. Because the casting sand is sticky and will retain its shape, when the two box are brought back together a hollow cavity exist in the shape of the object we will cast. Pour holes and vent holes are made and molten hot aluminium is poured into the pour hole and fills up the cavity. Once the aluminium cools and hardens the aluminium can be safely removed from the sand. If all goes well then the new cast should be nearly identical to the original. Many thanks to Joe Cloonan from the Sea Rescue Team for his knowledge and casting skills!! As it turned out, Land & Sea Rescue Teams did quite an impressive job 🙂
Molten aluminium is poured into the mold cast
A new aluminium leg!!!
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