Based on the size of most UAVs and the fact that it's NASA, they're almost certainly using a large format printer from Stratsys or 3D Systems in the $250K+ range.
I have quite a few friends that work at Stratsys you’ll be surprised just how unimpressive their print quality actually is compared to many hobbyist printers.
They are very consistent however especially at their volume and the material quality is also excellent which leads to very good production results.
From the video at least they print the prop blades on an Ultimaker and an old one to boot this is something you can easily do at home.
The body of the UAV looks like it is a skinned composite so it wasn’t fully 3D printed I’m guessing they printed a skeleton and then put composite sheets over it.
This doesn’t look like anything you can’t print at home if you know what you are doing and have either a high end hobby printer or a custom built one.
I work in a lab that has a large variety of printers from hobby grade to Stratasys FDM and resin SLA, polyjet.
You're right that the stratasys machines are unimpressive in their quality and precision; I can get a better end part in many cases with a $300 Prusa clone than a $25k F370.
However you're also right that their consistency is their main strength, and in my opinion this is why they are worth the money (if you need high throughput and low failure rate). The Stratasys printers we have are easily the most reliably machines we run, and have a close to 100% success rate while being completely hands off. The calibration routines, heated build chamber, and disposable build plates are key here.
The other area where Stratasys leads is with soluble support. I haven't found any generic material that comes close to SR-30. PVA is an absolute nightmare for reliability. If anyone has found something that they are happy with, please let me know.
You can probably find the same soluble support Stratsys uses the price is just going to be bonkers like all their materials.
I just print with normal support structures but E3D soluble support is supposedly very good (but very expensive like $280 for 5 lbs.).
So I’m not going to spend that much money I rather print something that would print with minimal supports and just cut them off.
Yeah Stratsys doesn’t care about the final quality of your benchy but it will work every time and their integration along the entire toolchain is excellent including the design phase which means your CAD is going to be aware of the dimensionality impact of the printing as well as other constraints like support material placement.
ABS is a pain to print without an enclosure, and ABS for the most part doesn't absorbs water also it's not as much of an issue with the final parts (aside from Nylon that can expand easily) but rather that moisture caught in the filament boiling during the extrusion which results in your print looking like a sponge.
It prints fine on my non-enclosed delta. My printer isn't anything special, it's just, like you said, water absorption by the filament is an issue if it's left out in the open.
The key is simply to keep the filament in a drybox before use. It doesn't need to be anything fancy- I use a 5-gallon Home Depot bucket, a small jar of Damp Rid (Calcium Chloride), and a seedling heater mat to keep things warm. It works great.
I also have a CR10(s) pretty decent printer if you are willing to work out its quirks.
For water applications PET or PLA would be the best don’t use nylon and ABS is a bitch to print with without enclosures.
I would recommend you getting some protective epoxy for any prints you want to last for anything that is going to be in water just sand the part and put a marine epoxy layer on top of it the additional weight isn’t an issue.
I would think so. One of the Stratasys engineers at their skunkworks division in Minnesota walked me through their process for printing something as large as a full-size table (upside down to minimize support material). The technology is really impressive but the uses seem few and far between.
