Alexander Meshkov, a sixth year student at the Faculty of Aircraft of Novosibirsk State Technical University (NETI), under the guidance of Ilya Zverkov, Professor of the Department of Aircraft and Helicopter Engineering, developed a lightweight swivel nozzle made of aluminum alloy with a corundum wear-resistant surface, as well as its manufacturing technology.
"We thought about manufacturing such parts while working on the Sarma drone. There are Chinese analogs, but their quality leaves much to be desired. There are European analogs, but the price is too high and they are generally difficult to find. We decided to make swivel nozzles for our own production. Despite its small size, it is a technically important component that ensures the operation of the mechanical control wiring in the aircraft. The swivel nozzle is made of aluminum alloys, which reduces the weight of the product, and owing to the use of microarc oxidation (MDO), the wear resistance of the material and its protective properties increase. A decrease in the weight of the product entails a decrease in the weight of the entire structure. For aircraft, this leads to an increase in payload, and for robots, to a decrease in inertial loads on the links of the mechanism," said Alexander Meshkov, the author of the development.
As the developer notes, the technologies used will expand the scope of application of hinged tips, and they can be used in various technical devices (robots, vehicles). Potential consumers of the products include research institutes, design bureaus, and repair plants in the fields of robotics, aviation and space technology.
"The most common sizes of the swivel nozzle were made (for a bolt of 6 and 8 mm); larger sizes require more powerful equipment. In addition, further improvement of the technology is necessary, namely, reducing the roughness of the ball surface after microarc oxidation, as well as automation of production operations. For this purpose, we plan to design and manufacture a grinding machine capable of processing spherical surfaces in various diameters. Further tests for static strength and wear resistance will be carried out," Alexander Meshkov added.