How blueflite reduced fuselage mass 25% in 4 hours instead of 4 weeks

Summary

Drone-based logistics platform provider blueflite used lattices in nTop to develop an aerodynamic, lightweight fuselage to battle the toughest problems in aviation: gravity and drag. The team also turned to nTop Accelerate managed services to set up timesaving reusable workflows.

About: Founded in 2018, blueflite designs and manufactures advanced drone systems and software that provide an integrated approach to faster, more cost-effective cargo delivery.

Industry: Aerospace
Size: 11-50 employees
Location: Detroit, Michigan
Application: Lightweighting

The project

Design a drone that can handle the harsh demands of logistics

*blueflite’s drones must adhere to strict regulations, stay under 55 pounds, and be scalable.*

Logistics equipment is used heavily in adverse weather conditions. To operate in these environments, a drone must be robust, easy to use, and highly autonomous while meeting requirements for range, speed, cargo capacity, and aviation regulations.

Scalability is also key. blueflite customers won’t need just one drone—they’ll need a whole fleet.

The challenge

Reduce mass without compromising performance

*nTop enables blueflite to meet tight deadlines when customizing drones for customers.*

Due to FAA regulations, blueflite had to keep the drone under 25kg (55lb).

To hit that mark, blueflite used advanced design strategies to quickly reduce the mass of the fuselage. While CAD worked well to create aerodynamic surfaces, it was slow to manually model the variably shelled components, and it couldn’t generate the lattice infills and sophisticated ribbing needed for structural rigidity.

Using tools that can eke out every little gram is absolutely mandatory. And our CAD tool is amazing, but it doesn’t do what nTop does at all. nTop helps us take these beautiful Class A surfaces and engineer them into really lightweight structures.
James McClearen
CTO
blueflite

The solution

Lightweight and automate with nTop

blueflite developed a reusable, timesaving nTop workflow ‌to lightweight and ensure the rigidity of fuselage components, without compromising aerodynamic surfaces.

First, they imported Class A surfaces designed in CAD into nTop and ‌generated a variable-thickness skin. Then they applied a lattice infill and structural support with isogrid ribbing. Next, they optimized key design parameters with field-driven design.

The results

25%
Reduction in fuselage mass
4 hour
Modeling time vs. 4 weeks
5 min
Shell and fill time vs. multiple hours

We've learned, and I think a lot is down to using nTop, that we can print the entire drone without an underlying carrying structure. And that's kind of revolutionary.
Frank Noppel
CEO
blueflite

Why nTop?

nTop’s ability to create lightweight, complex geometries enabled blueflite to design reliable drones that met customer demands and FAA regulations on a tight deadline. nTop Accelerate, nTop’s managed services offering, helped blueflite save more time and automate design with reusable workflows.

Reduce mass with durability and rigidity in mind

blueflite used a combination of techniques to reduce weight while maintaining the strength of the structure. The landing gear, for instance, needed an internal structure that was light, yet rigid enough to handle the impact of landing. They used nTop to apply a honeycomb lattice to reduce the thickness of the skin and maintain stiffness.

*Blueflite used latticing in nTop to lightweight the drone’s landing gear.*

Automate recurring design tasks

With nTop, blueflite saves hours of design time that would be needed to perform shelling, latticing, and isogrid ribbing in CAD. With an established workflow in nTop, they can complete these tasks in about 5 minutes, even when wrapping around complex aerodynamic geometry.

James noted, “If you'd have to spend five hours to do it in CAD, but you could do it in 5 minutes in nTop, why wouldn't you?”

*The shelling and infilling process in nTop.*

Adopt new design approaches quickly

nTop Accelerate, a managed service offering, saved blueflite time on a high-priority project that required nTop capabilities they hadn’t yet learned. When a customer had a quick-turnaround request, blueflite worked with nTop engineers to develop a custom workflow quickly. Because it was also reusable,‌ blueflite has since applied it to more than 40 components in later projects, saving hundreds of hours of monotonous work.

*The isogrid design helps to stiffen the parts without adding much bulk or weight.*

Conclusion

nTop enabled blueflite to reduce the weight of their drone’s fuselage by 25%, while also meeting strict strength and weight requirements. Plus, reusable workflows and managed services help them save hours of time per project.