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3D Printing News Briefs: February 8, 2019

We made it to the weekend! To celebrate, check out our 3D Printing News Briefs today, which covers business, research, and a few other topics as well. PostProcess has signed its 7th channel partner in North America, while GEFERTEC partners with Linde on 3D printing research. Researchers from Purdue and USC are working together to develop new AI technology, and the finalists for Additive World’s Design for Additive Manufacturing 2019 competition have been announced. Finally, Marines in Hawaii used 3D printing to make a long overdue repair part, and Thermwood and Bell teamed up to 3D print a helicopter blade mold.

PostProcess Technologies Signs Latest North American Channel Partner

PostProcess Technologies, which provides automated and intelligent post-printing solutions for additive manufacturing, has announced its seventh North American Channel Partner in the last year: Hawk Ridge Systems, the largest global provider of 3D design and manufacturing solutions. This new partnership will serve as a natural extension of Hawk Ridge Systems’ AM solutions portfolio, and the company will now represent PostProcess Technologies’ solution portfolio in select North American territories.

“Hawk Ridge Systems believes in providing turnkey 3D printers for our customers for use in rapid prototyping, tooling, and production manufacturing. Often overlooked, post-printing is a critical part of all 3D printing processes, including support removal and surface finish refinement,” said Cameron Carson, VP of Engineering at Hawk Ridge Systems. “PostProcess Technologies provides a comprehensive line of equipment that helps our customers lower the cost of labor and achieve more consistent high-quality results for our 3D printing technologies, including SL (Vat polymerization), MJF (Sintered polymer), and ADAM (Metal) printing. We vet our partnerships very closely for consistent values and quality, and I was impressed with PostProcess Technologies’ reputation for reliability and quality – an ideal partnership to bring solutions to our customers.”

GEFERTEC and Linde Working Together on 3D Printing Research

Near-net-shaped part after 3D printing. [Image: GEFERTEC]

In order to investigate the influence of the process gas and the oxygen percentage on 3DMP technology, which combines arc welding with CAD data of metal parts, GEFERTEC GmbH and Linde AG have entered into a joint research project. The two already work closely together – Linde, which is part of the larger Linde Group, uses its worldwide distribution network to supply process gases for 3D printing (especially DMLS/metal 3D printing/LPBF), while GEFERTEC brings its arc machines, which use wire as the starting material to create near-net-shaped parts in layers; conventional milling can be used later to further machine the part after 3D printing is complete.

The 3D printing for this joint project will take place at fellow research partner Fraunhofer IGCV‘s additive manufacturing laboratory, where GEFERTEC will install one of its 3D printers. The last research partner is MT Aerospace AG, which will perform mechanical tests on the 3D printed parts.

Purdue University and USC Researchers Developing New AI Technology

In another joint project, researchers from Purdue University and the University of Southern California (USC) are working to develop new artificial intelligence technology that could potentially use machine learning to enable aircraft parts to fit together more precisely, which means that assembly time can be reduced. The work speaks to a significant challenge in the current AM industry – individual 3D printed parts need a high level of both precision and reproducibility, and the joint team’s AI technology allows users to run software components in their current local network, exposing an API. Then, the software will use machine learning to analyze the product data and build plans to 3D print the specific parts more accurately.

“We’re really taking a giant leap and working on the future of manufacturing. We have developed automated machine learning technology to help improve additive manufacturing. This kind of innovation is heading on the path to essentially allowing anyone to be a manufacturer,” said Arman Sabbaghi, an assistant professor of statistics in Purdue’s College of Science.

“This has applications for many industries, such as aerospace, where exact geometric dimensions are crucial to ensure reliability and safety. This has been the first time where I’ve been able to see my statistical work really make a difference and it’s the most incredible feeling in the world.”

Both 3D Printing and AI are very “hot” right now. Outside of the hype there are many ways that machine learning could be very beneficial for 3D printing in coming years in part prediction, melt pool monitoring and prediction, fault analysis and in layer QA. Purdue’s technology could be a possible step forward to “Intelligent CAD” that does much of the calculation, analysis and part generation for you.

Finalists Announced for Design for Additive Manufacturing Challenge

[Image: Additive Industries]

Additive Industries has announced the finalists for its Additive World Design for Additive Manufacturing Challenge, a yearly competition where contestants redesign an existing, conventionally manufactured part of a machine or product with 3D printing, taking care to use the technology’s unique design capabilities, like custom elements and thin walls. This year, over 121 students and professionals entered the contest, and three finalists were chosen in each category, with two honorable mentions – the Unibody Hydraulic System by from Italy’s Aidro Hydraulics & 3D Printing and the Contirod-Düse from Nina Uppenkam, SMS Group GmbH – in the professional category.

“The redesigns submitted from all over the world and across different fields like automotive, aerospace, medical, tooling, and high tech, demonstrated how product designs can be improved when the freedom of additive manufacturing is applied,” said Daan Kersten, CEO of Additive Industries. “This year again we saw major focus on the elimination of conventional manufacturing difficulties, minimization of assembly and lowering logistical costs. There are also interesting potential business cases within both categories.”

The finalist designs are listed below, and can be seen in the image above, left to right, top to bottom:

  • “Hyper-performance suspension upright” from Revannth Narmatha Murugesan, Carbon Performance Limited (United Kingdom, professional)
  • “Cutting dough knife” from Jaap Bulsink, K3D (The Netherlands, professional)
  • “Cold Finger” from Kartheek Raghu, Wipro3D (India, professional)
  • “Brake Caliper” from Nanyang Technological University team (Singapore, student)
  • “Cubesat Propellant Tank” from Abraham Mathew, the McMaster University (Canada, student)
  • “Twin Spark Connecting Rod” from Obasogie Okpamen, the Landmark University (Nigeria, student)

Marines 3D Printed Repair Part 

US Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Tracey Taylor, a computer technician with 7th Communications Battalion, aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Hansen in Okinawa, Japan, is one of the Marines that utilize 3D printing technology to expand capabilities within the unit. [Photo: US Marine Corps Cpl. George Melendez]

To save time by moving past the lengthy requisitioning process, 3D printing was used at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay, to create a repair part that would help fix a critical component to increase unit readiness. This winter, Support Company, Combat Logistics Battalion (CLB) 3 fabricated the part for the Electronic Maintenance (EM) Platoon, 3rd Radion Battalion, and both EM technicians and members of CLB-3 worked together to design, develop, and 3D print the part, then repaired the component, within just one month, after having spent almost a year trying to get around delays to fix it.

US Marine Cpl. Anthony Farrington, designer, CLB-3, said that it took about three hours to design the replacement part prototype, and an average between five to six hours to 3D print it, before it was used to restore the unit to full capability.

“With the use of 3D printing, Marines are empowered to create solutions to immediate and imminent challenges through additive manufacturing innovation,” said subject matter expert US Marine Chief Warrant Officer 3 Waldo Buitrago, CLB-3.

“We need to embrace 3D printing and encourage our Marines to express their creativity, which in turn, could lead to solutions in garrison and combat such as in this case study.”

3D Printed Helicopter Blade Mold

Thermwood and Bell recently worked together to create a 3D printed tool, but not just any 3D printed tool. Thermwood believes that the 3D printed helicopter blade mold is the largest ever 3D printed autoclave-capable tool. Bell, frustrated with expensive tooling that took a long lead time, reached out to Thermwood for help, and the company suggested its LSAM system, with new 60 mm melt core technology. Bell then provided Thermwood with a 20-foot-long, 17-inch-high, 14-inch-wide closed cavity blade mold, and upon receiving both the model and Bell’s tooling requirements, Thermwood began printing the tool with Techmer PM’s 25% carbon fiber reinforced PESU material (formulated specifically for its LSAM additive printing) in a continuous run. The new melt core can achieve a high print rate, even when processing high temperature material, which was great news for Bell.

Glenn Isbell, Vice President of Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing Innovation at Bell, said, “Thermwood’s aggressive approach to pushing the boundaries and limitations of traditional 3D printing and machining is exactly what we were looking for.”

The final bond tool was able to maintain the vacuum standards required by Bell for autoclave processing right off the printer, without needing a seal coating. Thermwood will soon 3D print the second half of the blade mold, and both teams will complete further testing on PESU 3D printed molds for the purpose of continued innovation.

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US Army Learning About and Using 3D Printing to Improve Military Readiness

The REF Ex Lab at Bagram Airfield produced these items after Ex Lab engineers worked with Soldiers to develop solutions to problems they encountered.

The US Army has long been putting 3D printing to good use. In an article published in the latest edition of Army AL&T Magazine, senior editor Steve Stark takes a deep dive into just how this branch of the military is using 3D printing, and what barriers stand in its way.

Stark wrote that 3D printing “is a natural fit for the Army” as the military branch works to upgrade its manufacturing technologies. Dr. Philip Perconti, director of the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL), says the technology “is at a pivotal stage in development.”

At the opening of the new Advanced Manufacturing, Materials and Processes (AMMP) manufacturing innovation center in Maryland this fall, Dr. Perconti said, “The Army wants to be at the forefront of this advancement in technology.”

Dr. Perconti believes that mobile production of various replacement parts and components is on the horizon, and he’s not wrong: the Navy, the Air Force, and the Marines are already taking advantage of this application.

3D printing can be used to improve readiness, which is a fairly wide-ranging category that covers everything from buildings and repairs to logistics and sustainment. The overarching goal is to send units out with just the right amount of equipment to establish a mobile unit for on-demand 3D printing.

Mike Nikodinovski, a mechanical engineer and additive expert with the Army’s Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC), explained that various places around the Army, like its Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) and the Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center (AMRDEC), are currently enhancing readiness, and speeding up the sustainment process, by experimenting with the 3D printing of plastic and metal parts.

“We’ve been repairing parts for the M1 Abrams. … We’ve done projects cross-Army and with the Marine Corps where we printed things like impeller fans. A lot of the things we’ve been doing are just basic one-for-one replacement,” Nikodinovski said. “What can you do with additive for a part that’s traditionally manufactured? A lot of that gets at sustainment, and that’s what we’re trying to stand up at Rock Island—give them the capabilities so they can print metal parts, especially if you want … long-term procurement for parts where you only need a couple, vendors are no longer in business and it doesn’t make a lot of sense to spend a lot of money to set up tooling. Can additive be used to supplement the sustainment process, where I can just, say, print three parts and save all the time it would take to find vendors or set up the tooling?”

A 3D printed 90° strain relief offset connector, which was designed and fabricated by REF engineers at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan to prevent cables from breaking when attached to a piece of equipment.

Additive manufacturing is very different from subtractive manufacturing, which means that critical training is involved.

“That’s a huge undertaking. We need to not only train the people who are going to touch and run the machines, but train the troops and the engineers on the capabilities of and how to design for AM,” explained Edward Flinn, the Director of Advanced Manufacturing at Rock Island Arsenal.

“You’ve got to train the Soldier on the capabilities of the technology along with how to actually use the machine. Then there’s how to teach the design community themselves the benefits of additive so they can start designing for it.”

Ryan Muzii, REF support engineer, cuts metal for a project.

Megan Krieger, a mechanical engineer at the Army’s Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), explained that the use of makerspaces in the MWRs (morale, welfare, and recreation facilities) at libraries is a helpful way to get military personnel more familiar with 3D printing. She explained that this way, “if people are passionate about making things, they’ll learn it a lot better than if they’re just thrown into it.”

Outside of actually learning how to use the technology, the Army is also working to develop new materials and design tools for 3D printing.

Dr. William Benard, senior campaign scientist in materials development with ARL in Maryland, said, “The Army’s near-term efforts are looking at readiness, and in research, one of the simpler things is to just design new materials that are easier to print with, more reliable to print with, [the] properties are well understood—that kind of thing as a substitute, sort of a more direct approach to support of existing parts.

“One of the areas of investment that ARL is making to support this, and I know others in the RDECOM community are looking at it as well, is, really, new design tools for additive.”

The Army also needs to determine the specific economics of adopting 3D printing. While cost is less of a factor when you’re up against a tight deadline, this reverses when manufacturing reproducibility and cost are more important in a project. Additional factors include how critical the need for the part is, how quickly developments are being made, what else depends on the particular project, and where exactly the Army is spending money.

Tim Phillis, expeditionary additive manufacturing project officer for RDECOM’s Armament Research, Development Engineering Center’s Rapid Fabrication via Additive Manufacturing on the Battlefield (R-FAB), explained, “We as scientists and engineers can talk about material properties and print bed temperatures and print heads and all this kind of stuff, but the senior leadership is looking at, ‘So what? How does this technology improve readiness? How can I keep systems and Soldiers ready to go?’ And that’s what we’re learning.”

Soldiers used R-FAB during a Pacific Pathways exercise in 2017 to print a camera lens cover for a Stryker vehicle in four hours. [US Army photo]

Stark wrote that the Army is mostly “focusing its efforts on its modernization priorities,” and leaving further development up to academia and industry. If our military wants to use 3D printing for real-world applications, this development needs to speed up – these parts must stand up under plenty of stress.

Dr. Aura Gimm, who was managing the Army’s MIT-affiliated research center program at the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies at the time of her interview, said, “It’s one thing to create decorative parts, but it’s something else if you’re trying to create a loadbearing or actuating parts that could fail.

“The standardization and making sure that we have metrology or the metrics to test and evaluate these parts is going to be quite critical, for [items made with additive] to be actually deployable in the field. Because one thing that we don’t want is to have these parts … not work as expected.”

Dr. Perconti concurred:

“Ultimately, the goal for us is to enable qualified components that are indistinguishable from those they replace. Remember, when you take a part out of a weapon system and replace it with an additive manufactured part, you’re putting lives on the line if that part is not fully capable. So we have to be very sure that whatever we do, we understand the science, we understand the manufacturing, and we understand that we are delivering qualified parts for our warfighters.”

UH-60A/L Black Hawk Helicopter [Image: Military.com]

For example, AMRDEC has been working with General Electric Co. to 3D print parts for the T700 motor, which powers both the Apache and Black Hawk helicopters. However, these motor parts are not in use, as they have not yet been tested and and qualified at the Army’s standards. Kathy Olson, additive manufacturing lead in the Manufacturing Science and Technology Division of the Army’s Manufacturing Technology program at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, said this project is “more of a knowledge transition” to show that it’s possible to 3D print the parts with laser powder bed fusion.

In order to qualify 3D printed parts for Army use, the materials must first be qualified.

“Then you have to qualify your machine and make sure it’s producing repeatable parts, and then qualify the process for the part that you’re building, because you’ll have likely different parameter sets for your different geometries for the different parts [that] you’re going to build,” Olson explained.

“It’s not like you can just press a button and go. There’s a lot of engineering involved on both sides of it. Even the design of your build-layout is going to involve some iteration of getting your layout just such that the part prints correctly.”

One solid application for Army 3D printing is tooling, as changes in this process don’t need any engineering changes.

Dr. Patrick Fowler, right, former lead engineer of the Ex Lab in Afghanistan, works with a Soldier on an idea for a materiel solution.

“You can get quick turnaround on tooling,” Flinn explained. “The design process takes place, but the manufacturing can take place in days instead of weeks…For prototyping or for mainstream manufacturing, I can have a tool made [additively] and up and running in 24 hours.”

If applied correctly, 3D printing will allow soldiers deployed all over the world to make almost anything they need in the field.

“What missions can we solve? We’re finding all kinds of things,” said Phillis. “Humvees are being dead-lined because they don’t have gas caps. Or the gas cap breaks. When they order it, they’ve got to sit there for 30 days or 45 days or however long it takes to get that through the supply system.

“If we can produce it in a couple of hours, now we’ve got a truck that’s ready for use while we’re waiting for the supply system to catch up.”

Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below.

[Images: US Army photos by Jon Micheal Connor, Army Public Affairs, unless otherwise noted]

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US Army Takes RFAB 3D Printing Facility to South Korea

The US military has been using 3D printing for quite a while in all of its branches, and now in South Korea the Army is field testing 3D printed concepts through a newly established facility called Rapid Fabrication via Additive Manufacturing on the Battlefield, or RFAB. This is the fourth deployment of the $250,000 facility, but unlike other deployments that lasted only a month, this one will last an entire year, operated by a team of six soldiers.

The Army chose South Korea as the newest location for the facility because of its near-deployment nature.

“We’re trying to validate the use of additive manufacturing in the future of the [Army],” said Chief Warrant Officer Dewey Adams.

The facility, which has five 3D printers, can quickly produce parts for tanks, trucks, rifles, and many other things the Army might need. While the parts produced by 3D printing may be small, the impact of the technology on the Army has the potential to be great. Some of the most critical parts have been extremely small, said Adams. For example, a fire suppression cap for a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle costs only $2.51 – but it takes 126 days to ship from the United States, and if it is missing or broken, it can put the entire vehicle out of commission. 3D printing a replacement takes less than a day.

The Army isn’t just producing spare parts, either. It also 3D printed about 75 training mines and mortars. There are limits to the program, however; the 3D printed replacement parts are just temporary until permanent ones arrive, and the 3D printers in the RFAB can only produce plastic and some carbon-reinforced materials. The team also can’t 3D print parts that would cause serious harm if they were to fail, such as rifle firing pins or parts for helicopters. The program still does the Army plenty of good, however, with its quick turnaround times and ability to be transported from location to location.

“We want the asset as close to front line as we can,” said Adams.

James Zunino, a materials engineer with Armament Research Development and Engineering Center, at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., discusses a 3-D printed grenade launcher during Lab Day, May 18, 2017, at the Pentagon. (Image: Sgt. Jose Torres)

So far, Adams’ unit has produced about 65 different parts and about 500 pieces of equipment in three months with a success rate of about 65 percent. Even failed parts are valuable, too, as they offer insight into the limits of the technology that can be used at the Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) in Rock Island, Illinois.

Parts that succeed are also sent to ARDEC, where they are saved as blueprints to a military-wide data cloud that can be accessed by any branch – an ever-growing library of digital parts that can be downloaded and 3D printed instantly.

Zunino discusses 3-D printed parts for tracked robotic vehicles, during Lab Day, May 18, 2017, at the Pentagon. [Image: Sgt. Jose Torres]

Adams said that the US Marines and Navy are further ahead of the Army when it comes to 3D printing, but the Army is working to catch up. According to Billy Binikos, an ARDEC representative who works with Adams, the Army could adapt RFAB facilities for regular use by 2025.

“The only limitation is our imagination,” Adams said about the potential of 3D printing in the field.

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3D Printing Keeps Navy Ships Up and Running for Minimal Cost

3D printing has become a bigger part of life in the United States Navy, and indeed in all branches of the military, as servicepeople come up with ingenious ways to use the technology to save time and money and overall make life easier. Last month, the USS Chung-Hoon Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer ran into some trouble when a bolt from a hangar bay roller assembly became stressed to the point of breaking. The damaged bolt meant that the door could not open and close properly. Instead of being able to replace one simple part, the Chung-Hoon would need to order an entirely new roller assembly, which the ship didn’t have time to wait for.

Luckily, the Chung-Hoon was close to another ship: the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis, whose machine shop had a 3D printer installed by Naval Sea Systems Command in April as part of a Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Fleet Readiness and Logistics (OPNAV N4) additive manufacturing acceleration initiative.

When the John C. Stennis’ Chief Engineer, Cmdr. Kenneth Holland, received the request for a new bolt from the Chung-Hoon, he saw it as a great opportunity to test out the capabilities of the new 3D printer.

“The printers are being used right now to resolve issues while they’re small problems,” said Holland. “It’s used to help manufacture parts that you can generally only get if you buy the higher assembly.”

Machinery Repariman 1st Class Clinton Barlow received the broken bolt from the Chung-Hoon, who designed a new part using CAD software. Before he could create a new part, however, he and his team had to be trained in the use of the new 3D printer.

“Representatives from NAVSEA came out to sea with us during one of our recent underways and helped teach us how to use the printers,” said Machinery Repairman 3rd Class Blaine Matthews. “This was on top of the one-day training that we received in Keyport that got us familiarized with the equipment. When they came underway with us, it was our chance to get the machines dirty and see what they were made of.”

Once he had been trained, Barlow 3D printed a replica of the bolt and sent it back to the Chung-Hoon so that they could test it and make sure it met the requirements of the door. After that replica was approved, a new bolt could be made using conventional metal machining technology.

“We can replicate that bolt, send it to the ship, ask if it fits length wise, thread wise, and is this what you guys need us to make,” said Barlow. “Instead of spending the time of cutting all that metal away, which can take up to six hours to do, I can print one and make the changes on the go. It saves time and it saves money.”

Holland and his team have 3D printed several other small but important parts for other Navy colleagues, as well.

“For example, one of AIMD’s (Aviation Intermediate Maintenance Department) calibration machines didn’t work because they didn’t have any knobs for it,” said Holland. “We were able to manufacture a simple plastic knob and by creating that knob, although small, we were able to get that machine back up and running.”

The 3D printed part saved a significant amount of money for the department.

“They would’ve had to order a brand-new console which would’ve cost $5,300,” said Barlow. “They brought me the knob, I designed it, put it on there and now they can use that piece of equipment which they use for hundreds of calibrations. They could’ve spent $5,300 on a new system or the six cents of material that it took to make that knob.”

Holland and his team are constantly looking for ways that they can use 3D printing to save money and time.

“It gives us another effective tool to keep the ship in the fight,” said Holland. “It’s also a tool to help us get first-time quality in the repairs for the ship. If you have something that works and it fits, forms, and functions, then you can deliver the final component and know that it’ll fit.”

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[Source: American Security Today/Images: US Navy/Grant G. Grady]

 

 

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3D Printing Valued by the Navy for Underway Replenishment

Underway replenishment, also known as replenishment at sea (RAS) is a method of transferring supplies from one ship to another while a naval mission is underway. In a paper entitled “Future UNREP: Existing Technologies, Concepts of Operation, and Why Replenishment at Sea Must Evolve,” the authors argue that the methods of underway replenishment need to advance, and that they have a lot of potential to do so thanks to technology such as additive manufacturing.

Additive manufacturing is described in the paper as “a technology with significant potential for both industry and the Department of Defense (DoD).” Regarding the US Navy, the promise of additive manufacturing lies greatly in its flexibility and its potential for personalized manufacturing. The paper cites a 2014 Deloitte study that highlights the technology’s ability to deliver the right part at the right place, the right time and in the right quantity. The value of additive manufacturing, the study continues, includes the ability to manufacture parts that are:

  • Individually customized for specific purposes
  • Produced at the actual point of use
  • Created on demand
  • Manufactured in lower quantities with no loss of design fidelity

Additive manufacturing has been largely accepted by the Navy; in 2015, then-Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus  issued a memorandum to the Chief of Naval Operations, Commandant of the Marine Corps, and the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research, Development and Acquisition) to further develop and implement additive manufacturing. The memorandum issued directives to:

  • Increase development and integration of additive manufacturing systems
  • Develop the ability to qualify and certify AM parts
  • Standardize the digital AM framework and tools and enable end to end process integration
  • Establish the DON advanced integrated digital manufacturing grid

While 3D printing is being used in the Naval fleet, the paper points out, it has not yet reached widespread utilization or industrial capacity. The Navy has, however, seen successful testing on both smaller and larger scales.

3D printed submarine hull [Image: Energy.gov]

“For example, NAVAIR has established innovation cells and fabrication labs throughout its organization to familiarize its workforce with AM/3DP technology,” the paper states. “Their efforts resulted in the production of an H-1 helmet visor clip via three dimensional printing that was the first additive manufacturing part approved for fleet utilization and operations in the Navy supply system. Furthermore, a project known as 3-D Sailor is looking to expand this concept to the production of plastic pieces of flight deck gear, such as float coat clips and cranial helmet front panels, as well as developing digital technical data packages (TDPs) for the respective parts. NAVIR has also successfully produced a link and fitting for the MV22B Osprey’s engine nacelle which was subsequently tested and flown in the aircraft.”

The Navy’s experimentation with 3D printing has run from the very small, such as a radio clip, to the very large, such as a submarine hull. In addition to new parts such as these, additive manufacturing can also help by reproducing obsolete parts.

The TruClip is a radio clip 3D printed by the Navy.

Several challenges still remain to the widespread adoption of additive manufacturing in the Navy, according to the Deloitte report, including parts testing and qualification, information and communications security, training and developing of necessary skillsets, intellectual property issues, and DOD-wide AM governance.

Additional methods of underway replenishing are discussed in the paper, including undersea basing, autonomous and unmanned undersea vehicles, and autonomous shipping.

“As the future of the maritime domain continues to grow in complexity and competition from near peer competitors such as China, it is crucial that concepts of underway replenishment adapt to ensure compatibility with both strategic guidance and contested operating environments,” the paper concludes. “…Additionally, threats persist to the U.S.’s ability to maintain a comparative military advantage over potential adversaries, including internal process challenges and a rising China in the Asia-Pacific region. In order to maintain superiority across all warfare domains, a reimagining of current processes and operations is paramount, especially at-sea replenishment and logistics concepts of operation.”

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Military Researchers Present Work on Recycled 3D Printing Material

[Image: Nicole Zander, Army Research Laboratory]

The US military has made no secret of its enthusiasm for 3D printing, and lately has taken a creative, eco-friendly approach to the technology, looking into the recycling of water bottles for 3D printing material. Using water bottles, cardboard and other materials found on base for 3D printing could help reduce dependence on outside supply chains, improve operational readiness and offer greater safety. Normally, soldiers at remote bases or on the battlefield have to wait weeks for replacement parts, but by 3D printing them instead from materials that are readily at hand, they could eliminate that waiting time and become more self-sufficient.

The military researchers presented their work this week at the 256th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

“Ideally, soldiers wouldn’t have to wait for the next supply truck to receive vital equipment,” said Nicole Zander, PhD. “Instead, they could basically go into the cafeteria, gather discarded water bottles, milk jugs, cardboard boxes and other recyclable items, then use those materials as feedstocks for 3D printers to make tools, parts and other gadgets.”

According to the US Government Accountability Office, the Department of Defense has an inventory of 5 million items distributed through eight supply chains in order to keep military personnel supplied with food, fuel, ammunition and spare parts. Few of these items are stockpiled at front-line locations, however, meaning that shortages can occur at critical times. Many of these front-line locations do have 3D printers, but they often have to wait an extended period of time for feedstock to be replenished.

Nicole Zander, ARL, demonstrates equipment for Capt. Anthony Molnar, U.S. Marine Corps. [Image: Jhi Scott/US Army]

Zander, along with Marine Corps Captain Anthony Molnar and colleagues at the US Army Research Laboratory, has been investigating recycling PET plastic, which is commonly found in water and soda bottles. They determined that filament produced from recycled PET was just as strong as commercially available 3D printer filament. The team used the recycled PET filament to 3D print a vehicle radio bracket, which normally has a long lead time. The process required about 10 water bottles and took about two hours to 3D print.

Originally, the researchers found that other types of plastic, like polypropylene (PP), which is found in yogurt and cottage cheese containers, and polystyrene (PS), used in plastic utensils, were not practical for 3D printing, but some tinkering made them more useful. They strengthened the PP by mixing it with cardboard, wood fibers and other cellulose waste materials, and they also blended PS with PP to make a strong and flexible filament.

The team used a process called solid-state shear pulverization to create composite PP/cellulose materials. Shredded plastic and paper, cardboard or wood flour was pulverized in a twin-screw extruder to generate a fine powder, which was then melted and processed into filament. The researchers tested the new composites and discovered that they had improved mechanical properties that could be used to 3D print strong objects.

Zander and her team are building a mobile recycling center that will allow trained soldiers to make 3D printing filaments out of plastic waste. They are also looking into ways to 3D print from plastic pellets instead of filament, which could allow for the printing of larger objects.

“We still have a lot to learn about how to best process these materials and what kinds of additives will improve their properties,” Zander said. “We’re just scratching the surface of what we can ultimately do with these discarded plastics.”

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Air Force Uses 3D Printing to Save Thousands of Dollars…On Cups

[Image: Tech. Sgt. James Hodgman]

It’s remarkable that something so small as a cup handle could be responsible for saving thousands of dollars, but cases like these are seen all the time – often in the military. Take the example of the TruClip, a radio clip that Navy personnel aboard the USS Harry S. Truman developed to replace the standard clasps, which were constantly breaking. Replacing such a small part over and over again really adds up in terms of cost when you’re ordering it from external sources, so the development of a 3D printed version, which could be created for about six cents right onboard the ship, really did save the Navy thousands of dollars, not to mention time. Now it’s the Air Force that is saving money, thanks to, yes, a cup handle among its increasing portfolio of 3D printed components.

Heating liquids aboard an aircraft requires a special kind of cup that is extremely pricey. In 2016, the 60th Aerial Port Squadron at Travis Air Force Base in California purchased 10 of the cups for a shocking total of $9,630. In 2018, the price of one hot cup went up to $1,220, resulting in a charge of $32,000 for 25 cups. You would think that, for such high cost, these cups better be virtually indestructible, but they’re not – when dropped, the handles break off easily. So rather than spending thousands of dollars on replacements every time a cup is dropped, the squadron decided to look into improving the handle so it wouldn’t break so often.

Phoenix Spark is an Air Force innovation program that is currently working on 50 projects, including the resdesign of the hot cups.

“We started working the hot cup issue in late April,” said Capt. Ryan McGuire, 60th Air Mobility Wing Phoenix Spark chief and a KC-10 Extender pilot with the 9th Air Refueling Squadron. “We have weekly meetings every Friday at noon and our meetings are open forums where Airmen can present problems and potential solutions. The hot cup problem was shared with us because the price keeps increasing. Our office was asked to see if we could produce a 3D designed handle that is stronger than the current one.”

1st Lt. Dennis Abramov, 60th APS passenger operations flight commander, brought the hot cup issue to the Phoenix Spark team.

“The cup has two plastic pieces, one on top that helps lift the lid and one on the side,” he said. “The side handle allows someone to hold the cup without burning their hand. Unfortunately, we can’t order replacement parts when the handle breaks, which requires us to purchase a whole new hot cup every time one breaks. After cross talk with our fellow port squadrons across Air Mobility Command, we learned Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, was working on developing a redesigned handle. They were considering the 3D printing option. That’s when we brought the issue to Phoenix Spark at Travis to see if we could find a solution.”

Travis Air Force Base [Released – U.S. Air Force Photograph/Heide Couch]

The goal was to create a 3D printed handle that was stronger than the one that came with the hot cup. Nicholas Wright, a 3D designer and printer who works with the Phoenix Spark team, worked on designing a new prototype.

“The process took us about a week to develop a solution for the hot cup handle from learning the software to figuring how to physically print it,’ said Wright. “We talked to air crew members about how they’d like it designed. They recommended a more ergonomic design. The reason for this is because the original handle is placed upside down so aircrews wanted a mix between comfort and strength. We achieved that in about seven days.”

The new handle is curved, making it stronger.

“The handle currently on the hot cup has a square bottom which creates a weak point on the handle so any time it is dropped, the handle splits shortly after impact,” Wright said. “Our new rounded handle reduces that weak point. The handle we designed is stronger and capable of being printed at most Air Force bases.”

3D printing’s layer-by-layer fabrication is part of what makes the new handle so strong, said Wright.

“Think of a tree that has multiple layers so it’s extremely strong in multiple directions,” he said. “The new handle has stacked layers with a solid piece around it so it’s similar to the layers of a tree.”

Over the last three years, the squadron has spent nearly $56,000 to replace broken hot cups, an incredible number that could be greatly reduced by the new design.

[Image: Tech. Sgt. James Hodgman]

“Imagine you have to replace 40 hot cups each year at ever-increasing prices,” Wright said. “It’s much cheaper for us to replace the handle on 40 cups at about 50 cents per handle rather than purchasing 40 cups for more than $1,200 per cup.”

The team shared the prototype for the new handle with the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. The center is responsible for total life cycle management of Air Force weapon systems – and cups, as it turns out.

“They are working through all the processes, quality standards and materials to try and put out a playbook on how we can 3D print the handle so it’s approved to be on an Air Force aircraft,” said McGuire. “Once we get that guidance, we can print the handles at Travis.”

A cup may seem like an insignificant thing in comparison to everything else the Air Force has to focus on, but it’s certainly not insignificant monetarily, and fixing the handle frees up time and capital for more critical things.

“I’m here to help,” said Wright. “By being here, I’m supporting a cause I believe in, helping the Air Force save money and man hours. That’s important because if you save money and man hours, you can put those things toward other resources such as research and development, training and readiness.”

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[Source: DVIDS]