CTMA Project #: 142264
Problem: In both commercial and DOD organizations, supply chain issues can cause downtime which lead to loss of revenue and potentials which can snowball quickly. Most metal Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies do not satisfy the criteria needed to realize this potential. One major reason for this is the use of very fine metal powders as feedstock material. Metal powders pose a myriad of risks to transportation and remote operation.
Benefit: By advancing the use of AM technologies to provide on demand part availability, dependencies on an ever increasingly fragile global supply chain can be reduced. This will additionally reduce environmental impacts through decreased part supply chain traffic, and help to define use requirements and review key educational needs which allow for successful implementation of this type of technology in a multitude of industries.
Solution/Approach: The best solution for metal AM systems in the field lies in wire-based metal AM. Liquid Metal Printing (LMP) has the highest potential to meet the deploy ability needs for at sea and on land forward locations while still being able to address a sizable application space of small to medium sized parts with medium to higher complexity.
Impact on Warfighter:
- Leverage onboard metal AM processes to rapidly produce spares needed for new and existing hardware
- Provide maintenance and repair capabilities by enabling the rapid fabrication of new part and repair of damaged parts
- Enable warfighters to produce the needed tool in the field to meet the specific need at the time
DOD Participation:
- Naval Postgraduate School (NPS)
Industry Participation:
-
Xerox and subsidiaries
-
National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS)
Benefit Area(s):
- Repair Turn-Around Time
- Improved Readiness
Focus Area:
- Advanced/Additive Manufacturing
