Xenia, Bercella enable Fly Mi UAV drone composite wing development

Xenia’s (Vicenza, Italy) high-performance, fiber-reinforced pellets for large- scale additive manufacturing (LSAM) have supported the creation of a lamination mold by aerospace company Bercella Srl (Parma, Italy) for the 3.2-meter wings of Fly Mi’s (Milano, Italy) O.L.I.V.I.A (Optimised Lightweight Intelligent Vehicle for Immediate Assistance) UAV drone.

Fly Mi is a student association at the Politecnico di Milano dedicated to designing, building and testing novel aircraft models — but particularly fixed-wing drones — fostering collaborations between the academic and professional world of aerospace. The O.L.I.V.I.A project, designed for the delivery of humanitarian aid in emergencies, was developed 2024-2025 and participated in UAS Challenge 2025, where it was awarded third place out of 42 participants and recognized under the competition’s Safety Award (watch the aircraft fly here).

The UAV’s final design involved a fuselage comprising carbon fiber and Nomex honeycomb sandwich panels, as well as a carbon fiber wings manufactured using a closed mold process and cured in an autoclave. The wing’s molds were supported through Xenia Material’s Xecarb 40-C20-3DP polycarbonate reinforced with 20% carbon fiber, specifically designed for additive manufacturing. Bercella, in turn, used its large-scale 3D printing system and a milling process to transform these materials into the molds that made O.L.I.V.A a reality.

With a service temperature of 140°C, Xenia’s 3D printing filaments demonstrate optimal thermal resistance and high mechanical performance. Moreover, being a thermoplastic material, each mold is able to be shredded after use and recovered into their original granules for 100% recyclability.

Read about similar work Xenia has done collaboratively with Fly Mi for its Nyx drone.