Playing with the new foam cutter in FabLab

After having determined our airfoil profile, the real fun can finally start: cutting airfoils out of foam!

First step: import airfoil data in DevFoam. Not even remotely difficult, but we are still super excited our design will soon no longer be something on paper.

Next step: cutting an airfoil out of foam on the foam cutter in FabLab. Rumour has it our department bought this foam cutter with the Air Cargo Challenge in mind. We're the first KU Leuven team that uses it.

Result: a miniature airfoil! We still had some problems cutting the trailing edge. The hot wire of the foam cutter melts away too much material. It's possible this will no longer be a problem when we cut our full scale airfoil. If the problem still occurs, we might have to look into other airfoils that have a less complex trailing edge, but still more or less the same lift over drag properties.

Next up: cutting a full scale airfoil!