New Product - Lynxmotion UAV / Drones 16mm Aluminum Clamps

At Lynxmotion UAV we were looking at the future of our UAV / Drones lineup and had to take decisions for our next models. There are many ways to make a UAV frame and we wanted to keep the Lynxmotion spirit of being modular and expandable; something you can use to build your frame design and be able to reuse the parts on other projects. With that objective in mind, we chose to explore a tube and clamp system and created our own clamps which would solve the major issues normally associated with that type of hardware. This was a first step and now with the right building material, we can develop our next UAVs / Drones around them. Common issues with clamps available on the market:

• Most clamps use two screws that sandwich everything from the top to the bottom plate of the frame and are fixed with a nut. This means you have to tight every screw / nut with two tools from top and bottom and that your frame is  loose until all the tubes are inserted and properly tightened. This is less than convenient and quite hard to assemble.
• Weight is sometimes an issue with injection molded clamps since they need to be bigger in size to hold the torque applied to properly squeeze the tube.
• Plastic clamps are also prone to slipping. The plastic clamps need to be over-tightened for them not to slip and even then, they still do.

Lynxmotion UAV 16mm Clamps Features:

• Strong construction made from billet aluminum and milled using CNC equipment.
• Easy assembly design with two screws on each side which holds the clamp on its respective plate before final assembly.
• Two 4-40 x 3/4" screws will be used for final tightening of the tubes; one on each side plates.
• Only one Allen key is needed since there is no use for nuts because the body of the clamp is threaded.
• Industry standard hole spacing at 25mm between the centers make them compatible with various frames on the market.
• Four threaded holes are available for optional mounting and use 2-56 screws.
• Middle top hole that can either be used for mounting the clamp or to add a setscrew to tighten the tube even more to avoid slippage.
• Anodized Lynxmotion orange for durability and aesthetics.
• Low weight of 8.64g with full hardware (all screws and clamp parts, even the 2-56 screws)

Pictures:

Clamp Assembled

Clamp in Two Halves

Clamp on Motor Mount

Assembled Motor Mount

 

Weight is Important:

When considering weight, one might think that a metal based clamp will be heavier in the end than a simple injection molded version, and even if that can be the case, a properly designed aluminum part can be lighter in less critical areas and keep its strength while loosing considerable weight. We weighed a set of injection molded clamps that were used on DiaLFonZo-Copter frames in the past and the new Lynxmotion UAV version and the new clamps actually weigh less!

Injection Molded Clamp (full hardware) : 9.54g

Lynxmotion UAV 16mm Clamp (full hardware) : 8.64g

Manufacturing Process:

Here you can see the process our factory used to make the prototypes. They kindly provided us with this video which shows how involved making an aluminum part can be.

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Clamp Dimensions:

If you are looking to design your frame around our clamps or simply would like to make sure they fit on your current UAV, here are all the dimensions: They are available and in stock on RobotShop as well as Lynxmotion websites and each package includes:

• 4x 16mm aluminum half clamp
• 4x 4-40 x 3/4" black hex screw
• 8x 4-40 x 1/4" black hex screw
• 4x 4-40 x 1/4" black set-screw
• 8x 2-56 x 1/4" black Phillips head screw

Lynxmotion UAV - 16mm Aluminum Clamps (RobotShop) Lynxmotion UAV - 16mm Aluminum Clamps (Lynxmotion)