By Industrial Print Magazine Staff
The 8th annual Military Additive Manufacturing (MILAM) Summit and Technology Showcase took place in January in Tampa, FL. Hosted by the Defense Strategies Institute, it is billed as North America’s premiere military, aerospace, and defense three-dimensional (3D) printing event featuring senior-level U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition priorities, international 3D printing initiatives, and innovative technological presentations on cutting-edge solutions being developed across the advanced manufacturing and 3D printing industry.
A mix of presentations and vendor showcases took part in the event. Topics discussed include how 3D printing can deliver modernized sustainment and material readiness to the joint force, how it can facilitate the modernization of the defense industrial base, the importance of embracing additive manufacturing (AM) onto ships, leveraging 3D printing to accelerate change and sustain fleet readiness, and how to confidently enable a distributed, cloud-enabled network of printers.
We asked some of the vendors a the summit to share their experiences.
1000 Kelvin and Fieldmade announced a partnership set to increase the deployment of 3D printing at the front lines, enhancing strategic readiness and operational capabilities within the military sector. 1000 Kelvin’s AMAIZE platform, utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) informed by physics and manufacturing data to provide AM engineers with an AI-copilot, correcting print recipes and ensuring successful production of AM parts on the first try. This technology aligns with Fieldmade’s expertise in creating deployable AM solutions, such as its NOMAD Series of transportable AM modules. By combining their products, the two companies enable users in fields of battle to begin producing parts as soon as their 3D printer modules arrive on site, ensuring swift adaptability to operational needs.
3D Systems presented its 3D printing solutions comprising hardware, materials, software, and services. With more than 35 years of AM experience and deep application expertise, 3D Systems demonstrated how its team is uniquely qualified to help the defense industry rapidly design and produce consolidated components, accelerate the certification process, and optimize supply chains. In its booth, the 3D Systems team highlighted how AM enables benefits such as weight reduction, consolidated assemblies, and improved functionality for applications such as brackets, heat exchangers, propulsion, and casting patterns. As a result, MILAM attendees saw how the company’s technology reduced risk and creating a faster return on investment for AM by developing qualified, transferrable, and scalable production processes.
6K Additive shares its clean and sustainable metal powder production and recent Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) for both titanium and nickel powders. 6K Additive has made available the LCA report for titanium and nickel powders, enabling stakeholders to gain insights into the energy, carbon, and environmental consequences associated with the manufacturing of these materials. Also of note, 6K Additive was recently awarded a $23.4 million grant from the DoD. 6K Additive expects to double capacity and expand its domestic upcycling capability to create, maintain, protect, and restore U.S. industrial base capabilities critical for warfighting.
With a30-plus year history of serving the DoD and the broader defense sector, AlphaSTAR was glad to participate at the MILAM show. Its focus at the show was to highlight the benefits of AlphaSTAR’s physics-based simulation capabilities, which are viewed by many military and commercial practitioners alike as important enabling technologies. It’s no secret that improving trust and confidence in part reliability and quality consistency will help accelerate the overall growth of the industry. Now, with its verified and validated solutions gaining prominence, AlphaSTAR plans to figure heavily in AM’s ascension. Using material science and progressive failure analysis to predict the thermal-mechanical characteristics of manufactured parts, AlphaSTAR’s simulation software provides AM builders with the ability to qualify parts faster with dramatic reductions in cost.
As the lead sponsor of MILAM, Essentium, a Nexa3D company demonstrated its capabilities showcasing the HSE 280i HT 3D printer, featuring dual independent extruders on both the Y and X axes. Designed for military applications, the Essentium HSE 3D Printing Platforms include a range of materials, offering an industrial-scale solution for producing consistent quality AM parts at unparalleled speed and economics. This technology, combined with an end-to-end AM ecosystem, has enabled Essentium to drive standardization and dual-use commercial AM solutions to address production, supply chain, and procurement challenges. Following the announcement of its acquisition by Nexa3D, Essentium also showcased the Nexa3D XiP Pro at MILAM. With the largest build capacity and fastest print speed in its class, the XiP Pro offers production economics previously unattainable. Its state-of-the-art features, including a 7K resolution LCD screen and an open-platform design with a range of validated resins, make it a game changer for military AM applications.
With a deliberate need for rapid deployment of tools using a variety of performance thermoplastics, JuggerBot 3D’s goal has been to showcase the unique capabilities that its 3D printing system can perform to support the modern warfighter. With that in mind, the team focused on bringing parts with various thermal, mechanical, and environmental processing requirements. Applications vary in these circumstances from high temperature and pressure molding processes to larger commodity parts that need to be printed quickly and effectively. Presenting as an OEM at MILAM provided the opportunity to hear the needs of those directly in defense and how it can best contribute its technology to support them.
MELD Manufacturing Corporation was selected for the MilAM 2024 Technical Achievement Award for 3D Printing Innovation. The award honors the individuals, or groups, that have exemplified outstanding achievement in 3D printing in support of DoD mission priorities. MELD Manufacturing’s group nomination included the entire Jointless Hull team, including US Army GVSC, ASTRO America, Ingersoll Machine Tool, Siemens, and LIFT.
MILAM returns to Tampa February 11 to 13, 2025.
Feb2024, Industrial Print Magazine