Anyone who is based in the United States and working in today's UAV industry will be able to tell you that a major theme of the modern industry is the pressure to shift sourcing and manufacturing onto U.S. soil. As potential de facto bans for many foreign-made drones, particularly those coming from China, draw nearer, the pressure only continues to grow. That said, while this is a shift that many are just now starting to prepare for, plenty of companies around the nation have been at work trying to solve some of the biggest challenges related to onshoring manufacturing processes. 

One of the most significant leaps in making this happen is with additive manufacturing – also known as 3D printing – which utilizes digital designs to build 3D products layer by layer. An upcoming webinar hosted on Commercial UAV News and sponsored by HP, entitled Made in America: Redefining UAV Production with Additive Manufacturing, will tackle this very topic. The 60-minute webinar, taking place at 1:00 PM Eastern Time on October 30, will take the form of a “fireside-style roundtable,” according to HP, and will be moderated by 3D application engineer Jarrid Wittkopf. He will be joined by the following panelists:

This 60-minute discussion figures to touch on a couple of the most important topics related to onshoring manufacturing more broadly and additive manufacturing more specifically. For example, one of the major points of discussion will be what types of challenges UAV manufacturers were facing before additive manufacturing became a more common part of their processes. That can include things like complex supply chains – that are only becoming more complex – and the need for specialization for manufacturing specific parts.

The panelists will also address the reason why production based within the United States is so important for the industry right now. They will acknowledge some of the complications that naturally arise from this shift from foreign-based manufacturing to work being done on U.S. soil, such as the aforementioned supply chain complexities as well as costs, and detail how additive manufacturing can help overcome many of these barriers. 

They’ll also talk about HP’s 3D printing product, the Multi Jet Fusion, which the company says is “at the forefront of the 3D printing industry,” and that it offers “a powerful combination of speed, quality, and cost-efficiency.” This product is built for scalable operations rather than simply one-off projects, making it a good fit for this type of work around manufacturing UAVs. Each of the companies represented on the panel utilizes this tool, and they will detail how they are leveraging HP’s Multi Jet Fusion to build “lighter, stronger, production-ready drones” here in the U.S.

If you are interested in how companies are dealing with the need for onshoring UAV manufacturing and how additive manufacturing is impacting that work, you will not want to miss this conversation. Attendees will learn why this onshoring is happening in the first place, what additive manufacturing adds to the process and how it works, how companies are using this technology today in real-world scenarios, and what the future of this space will look like.

Registration is free, and all registrants will receive access to an on-demand recording of the conversation. 

Register Today