Drones and Unmanned Systems
Machined, Cast and Sintered Parts from One Supplier
Hydroforce makes machined airframe and drivetrain parts, finned die-cast electronics housings, sintered and MIM gears, small hydraulic cylinders, hydraulic motors and carbide wear parts for multirotor, agricultural, cargo, fixed-wing and VTOL drones, ground robots, remote-controlled hydraulic machines, and marine and underwater drones.
Why Drones Wear Parts Differently
On a multirotor or a fixed-wing drone, every gram of structure is taken from the flight time or the payload. Motor mounts, arm-folding joints and housings are made as light as their loads allow. Machined parts in 6xxx and 7xxx aluminium keep flat mounting faces and accurate bores at a low weight. Die casting and powder metallurgy form a part close to its final shape, so less metal has to be cut away as chips.
Rotors and motors vibrate for as long as a drone is in the air. Over time the vibration loosens fasteners and fatigues brackets. A motor mount or an arm-folding joint stays tight when its mounting faces are machined flat and its bores are held to IT6-IT7 fits. On a hydraulic cylinder or a manipulator joint, the rod-eye is forged in one piece with the rod, so there is no weld where a fatigue crack could start.
Motor controllers and power modules sit in small housings and have to get rid of their heat. Aluminium alloys conduct heat at 90 to 160 W/m·K. In a die-cast housing the cooling fins, mounting bosses and cable ports are cast together with the body in one shot and need no machining afterwards.
Small gears in servos, sprayer pumps and winches have to run quietly, and every gear in a series has to match the first one. A pressed and sintered gear gets its tooth profile from the die, so all gears from one die have the same geometry. The fine pores left in the sintered metal absorb part of the vibration and make the gear run quieter. Metal injection molding gives the same repeatability for smaller gears and levers with more complex shapes, formed in a single shot to ±0.02 mm.
Ground robots and remote-controlled hydraulic machines work in dust and mud and take shock loads. Their cylinders and motors need the sealing and testing of any mobile hydraulic circuit. Every cylinder goes through a final test. Motors and pumps with mounting flanges to SAE and DIN standards fit an existing machine as replacements without an adapter.
Marine and underwater drones need parts that resist salt water. We machine thruster housings and shafts from stainless steel EN 1.4404/316, make small MIM parts in 316L and coat die-cast housings for the electronics.
By Type of Equipment
Built for Aerial, Ground and Marine Drones
Multirotor drones
machined aluminium motor mounts, arm-folding joints and camera gimbal housings, finned die-cast housings for the power module and speed controllers, and MIM latch parts for the arm-lock mechanism.
Agricultural and cargo drones
machined arm and motor-mount assemblies and tank flanges, die-cast sprayer-pump and controller housings, sintered gears for the sprayer pump and winch, and carbide inserts for the spray nozzles.
Fixed-wing and VTOL drones
machined wing-joint plates, boom and lift-motor mounting parts and undercarriage components, die-cast electronics housings, and sintered gears for servo actuators.
Ground robots (UGV)
machined hubs, shafts, track sprockets and manipulator brackets, finned die-cast wheel-motor and gearbox housings, sintered gears for wheel-motor gearboxes and manipulator joints, and small hydraulic cylinders for the manipulator or blade.
Remote-controlled hydraulic machines
machined boom pins, bushings and shafts, die-cast electronics housings, hydraulic cylinders for the boom, arm and outriggers, hydraulic travel motors, and carbide wear bushings.
Marine and underwater drones
machined stainless-steel thruster housings, shafts and flanges, coated die-cast electronics housings, MIM parts in 316L, and carbide seal faces for pumps.
What We Make for Drone and Robot Builders
Six Technologies for Drone, Robot and Marine Vehicle Builders
Hydraulic Cylinders
Bore 20-1000 mm, working pressure up to 500 bar, operating temperature from -50°C to +200°C, double-acting, single-acting and telescopic designs. Aerial drones have no hydraulics. Ground robots with a manipulator or a blade and remote-controlled hydraulic machines use small cylinders on the boom, the arm and the outriggers, where they work in dirt under repeated shock. We forge the rod-eye from the same bar as the rod, so the joint has no weld. A forged joint has 3–5× higher fatigue resistance than a welded assembly. Every cylinder is pressure tested at 1.5× working pressure before it leaves the workshop.
Typical parts
- Small hydraulic cylinders for ground-robot manipulators and attachments
- Boom, arm and outrigger cylinders for remote-controlled hydraulic machines
- Cylinders with forged rod-eye ends for shock-loaded joints
- Replacement cylinders sized to an existing ground machine
Hydraulic Motors and Pumps
Gear, planetary, axial-piston and radial-piston motors with displacement from 0.25 to 8000 cc/rev, working pressure up to 450 bar, speed from 0.5 to 12000 rpm and operating temperature from -40°C to +120°C. Travel motors for tracked or wheeled ground robots and remote-controlled hydraulic machines come from the lower part of that range. With mounting flanges to SAE and DIN standards, a replacement motor fits an existing machine without an adapter. Each unit is function tested and pressure tested against the catalogue values before dispatch.
Typical applications
- Hydraulic travel motors for tracked or wheeled ground robots
- Drive motors for winches and manipulator functions on remote-controlled machines
- Gear pumps for the hydraulic power circuit of a remote-controlled machine
- Replacement motors and pumps for machines already in service
Machining and Gears
Our Haas CNC milling centres (1270 x 660 x 635 mm work envelope) and DMG MORI turning machines (Ø500 mm, 1000 mm length) machine airframe and drivetrain parts to ±0.05 mm and IT6-IT7 fits, with geometric control to ISO 2768-fH, ISO 286 and ISO 1101. Airframe parts are made from 6xxx and 7xxx aluminium alloys. Shafts and thruster housings for marine drones are made from titanium and from stainless steels 1.4301/304 and 1.4404/316. We cut and grind gears for servo actuators and gearbox stages to ISO 1328; a loaded stage usually needs grade 7. When a gearbox or a joint has no drawing left, we measure the worn part on the Zeiss Contura and cut the replacement to those measurements.
Typical parts
- Motor mounts, arm-folding joints and wing or boom-joint plates in aluminium
- Shafts, hubs, track sprockets and manipulator brackets for ground robots
- Stainless thruster housings, shafts and flanges for marine and underwater drones
- Replacement shafts and gears cut from a worn sample
Aluminium Die Casting
We die cast finned electronics housings and enclosures to ±0.1-0.3 mm with an Ra 1.6-6.3 μm surface finish. The dies are built in our own tool room from H13 or P20 tool steel. Walls go down to 0.5-1.5 mm, and mounting bosses, cable ports and cooling fins are cast with the body in one shot, at a cycle time of 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Aluminium alloys conduct heat at 90 to 160 W/m·K, so a light finned housing carries heat away from a power module or a motor controller.
Typical applications
- Finned housings for power modules and speed controllers
- Electronics enclosures for flight controllers and payload systems
- Wheel-motor and gearbox housings for ground robots, with cooling fins
- Coated housings for marine and underwater electronics
Powder Metallurgy and MIM
Small gears for servos, sprayer pumps and winches are pressed and sintered directly to shape, with the tooth profile formed by the die, so the geometry does not vary from part to part. Compaction goes up to 800 MPa and final density to 97%, tolerance is ±0.05 mm as sintered, and sintering uses up to 30% less material than cutting the same gear from bar. Metal injection molding forms smaller and more complex gears, levers and latch parts complete in one shot, in steels including 17-4 PH and 316L, with wall thickness down to 0.3 mm and tolerance to ±0.02 mm.
Typical applications
- Sintered gears for servo and sprayer-pump drives
- MIM gears, latches and small levers for arm-folding and locking mechanisms
- Sprayer-pump and winch gears for agricultural and cargo drones
- MIM parts in 316L for marine and underwater drones
Cemented Carbides
Carbide has few uses on drones: nozzle inserts for agricultural sprayers, wear bushings on remote-controlled hydraulic machines and seal faces in marine drone pumps. Hardness runs 1,400–2,000 HV across the ISO 513 grade range, and WC-Ni compositions resist corrosion in marine and chemical duty. Guide bores and seal faces are diamond ground to ±0.01 mm and Ra 0.1–0.4 μm.
Typical applications
- Nozzle inserts for agricultural sprayer drones
- Wear bushings for remote-controlled hydraulic machines
- Seal faces for marine and underwater drone pumps
- WC-Ni corrosion-resistant grades for marine duty
Cost Logic
Where the Budget Goes, and How We Keep the Price Down
A buyer usually compares a motor mount or a housing with the previous one on unit price. We spend on accuracy and testing, because they decide whether every airframe or robot in a series gets the same part. The rest of the order is kept standard.
| We invest in | How we keep the price down |
|---|---|
| Machining mounting faces and bores to IT6-IT7 fits on motor mounts, joints and gearbox housings | Standard mounting and shaft types where the airframe or gearbox design allows |
| X-ray inspection of die-cast housings for porosity at mounting bosses and sealing faces | Near-net-shape casting and pressing that removes machining, one die and one setup for a batch of identical parts |
| Batch testing: hardness, metallographic microscopy and CMM verification on sintered, MIM and carbide parts | Standard steels and ISO 513 carbide grades where the duty allows, special coatings and corrosion-resistant grades only where salt water or chemical exposure needs them |
| Material certificates and full documentation: EN 10204 3.1, dimensional and hardness reports | Sensors and integrated feedback only where the drone's control system uses them, die and tooling cost spread across the series |
Aftermarket
Replacement and Repair
Drone and robot enquiries often reach us as a worn part with no drawing: a servo or pump gear with the teeth worn off a stage, a motor-mount bushing worn oval, or a manipulator cylinder with a scored rod. We measure the tooth count, module and bore on a gear, or the bore, rod and stroke on a cylinder, on the Zeiss Contura CMM and with gear measuring instruments, and quote a replacement that fits the same space before any material is cut or pressed. If the original part wore out early, we tell you the likely cause and suggest a material or a finish that will wear more slowly on the replacement.
A spare seal kit is supplied on request with each hydraulic cylinder we build, and further kits are ordered by the serial number engraved on the body. Carbide, PM and MIM parts are pressed in tooling made for that part. After a part has been quoted and tooled, its drawing and tooling stay on file, and a repeat batch is made to the same dimensions as the first one with no redesign. A builder who produces airframes or ground robots in series gets the same motor mount, gear or housing in every unit.
By drawing
By worn sample
Batches for a series
Seal kits by serial number
Documentation
Standards and Documentation
Our component documentation refers to these standards.
| Standard | What it covers |
|---|---|
| ISO 6020 / ISO 6022 | Mounting dimensions for hydraulic cylinders |
| ISO 4413 | Safety requirements for hydraulic systems and components |
| ISO 10100 | Acceptance tests for hydraulic cylinders |
| EN 10204 3.1 | Material certificate with traceable test results, on request |
| ISO 1328 / DIN 3960 | Accuracy classes for gear tooth geometry |
| EN 1706 | Chemical composition and mechanical properties of cast aluminium alloys |
| ISO 5755 / ISO 22068 | Specification for sintered PM and MIM materials |
| ISO 513 | Classification of cemented carbide grades |
Aviation, defence and vehicle rules apply to the complete aircraft, drone system or vehicle and to the organisation that builds and approves it. For the components we make, we supply material certificates, dimensional reports and test protocols to the drawing you send us.
Our quality system is certified to ISO 9001:2015. More on inspection stages and equipment: Quality.
Quality
Quality Control
Every order goes through three inspection stages. We check incoming material against its certificate, and where the grade matters, for example on a carbide powder lot or a die-cast alloy ingot, we also run a spectrochemical analysis. During machining we measure with Renishaw probes on the machine and on a Zeiss Contura CMM with an error under 3 μm. The CMM is checked every 45 machine hours.
Die-cast housings are X-rayed for porosity at mounting bosses and sealing faces before machining. Sintered and MIM parts are checked for density, hardness and dimensions on every lot, with weight control on MIM green parts as an early warning of a feedstock drift. Carbide parts are ground to their functional tolerance, tested for Rockwell hardness and checked under the microscope for grain size and binder distribution. Gears cut by machining are measured for profile, lead, pitch and runout against their ISO 1328 grade. Hydraulic cylinders are pressure tested at 1.5× working pressure with a leak check at every seal and a full stroke with no stick-slip.
More detail: Quality.
From Hydroforce
From Our Workshop
Drone Parts from Prototype to Series, with the Right Process for Each Part
Machined drone prototypes, then die casting, sintering or MIM in series: which process suits each part and which surfaces stay machined. One workshop.
Read more → Powder MetallurgySintered Gears: Powder Metallurgy and MIM Gear Manufacturing
Net-shape spur and helical gears, sprockets and pump gears pressed and sintered to a final density up to 97%, with MIM gears and levers to ±0.02 mm, a route that suits the small gears in servos, winches and sprayer pumps.
Read more → Hydraulic CylindersHeavy-Duty Hydraulic Cylinder with Solid Forged Piston Rod, 350 bar, Clevis Mount
A cylinder with a forged, weld-free rod-eye rated at 350 bar, a joint design that suits the boom and arm cylinders on a remote-controlled hydraulic machine.
Read more →Procurement FAQ
FAQ
What documentation do you supply for drone and robot components?
Carbide, PM and MIM parts ship with a material certificate for the powder lot, a CMM dimensional report and, where the grade and duty call for it, a hardness or density report. Gears come with their ISO 1328 inspection report and hardness and case-depth records where heat treatment applies. Cylinders ship with EN 10204 3.1 certificates for the structural steels and a pressure test certificate. Tell us the standard your programme is built to and we plan the documentation package with the order.
Can you cut a gear or a housing from a worn sample with no drawing?
Yes. Send us the part, or photos with the tooth count and module for a gear, or the bore and mounting geometry for a housing or a cylinder. We take the geometry off the sample and quote before any material is cut, cast or pressed. If the part wore faster than it should have, we will tell you what to change on the replacement, for example the material or the surface finish, so that it lasts longer.
We build the same drone or ground robot in series. Can you supply it as a batch?
Yes. Once the first part has been quoted and measured against your drawing or your sample, further units run as a batch, with the same certificates and tests on every piece and one setup for the run. The drawing and, for carbide, PM and MIM parts, the tooling stay on file, so a repeat order matches the first part with no redesign.
What is the minimum order and the lead time?
A single cylinder is fine, with the same certificates and tests as a series batch. For motors and gears, tell us the quantity and we will quote. Die casting, powder metallurgy and MIM are tool-based series processes, so send us your volumes and we will size the tooling and quote. We quote the lead time with the offer: it depends on the material, the coating and the documentation package your programme asks for.
Related capabilities:
Get a Quote
Send us a drawing, a specification or a photo of the worn part with its measurements, and tell us what it is for: a multirotor, an agricultural or cargo drone, a fixed-wing or VTOL aircraft, a ground robot, a remote-controlled hydraulic machine, or a marine or underwater drone. We will quote the machined part, the die-cast housing, the sintered or MIM gear, the cylinder or the carbide wear part, made to tolerance and tested before dispatch, with the documentation your programme needs.