SPEE3D Completes DoD Pacific-Based Exercise

SPEE3D, a metal additive manufacturing company, has successfully completed Trident Warrior—the experimental portion of the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise—at the Marine Corps Air Station in Kaneohe Bay in Hawaii. The SPEE3D Expeditionary Manufacturing Unit (EMU), an on-site mobile additive manufacturing solution, was deployed during the trial and printed several cast-equivalent metal parts from aluminum and stainless steel to be studied for their material properties and viability for repairing and replacing defense equipment in a contested environment.

RIMPAC is a large international maritime exercise, and within it, Trident Warrior focuses on testing technologies such as additive manufacturing. A team of engineers from the Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing Research and Education (CAMRE) printed cast-equivalent replacement metal parts from EMU for the Army, Navy and Air Force, Marine, and Coast Guard. The goal of implementing SPEE3D’s cold-spray additive manufacturing (CSAM) solution was to prove that additive manufacturing can help secure military supply chains by reducing the delivery time of critical parts from days to hours and at the point of need.

“SPEE3D is thrilled to be included in RIMPAC, the largest distributed advanced manufacturing demonstration the Department of Defense has ever conducted to date,” says Byron Kennedy, CEO of SPEE3D. “In particular, additive manufacturing has been a major area of interest for the Department of Defense (DoD), and together, we have the same goals to train the military and implement additive manufacturing to print crucial metal parts at the point of need to support modernization and warfighter readiness.”

“CAMRE facilitates getting the latest in advanced manufacturing into operational settings and finds ways to unlock additional capabilities,” says Lt. Col. Michael Radigan, a member of the Marine Innovation Unit and the government lead on the CAMRE team for Trident Warrior 24. “SPEE3D worked side-by-side with our joint participants to further research on cold spray additive manufacturing and helped us uncover best practices to apply its unique capabilities in expeditionary environments.”

An expeditionary solution, EMU combines SPEE3D’s metal 3D printer, XSPEE3D, with its SPEE3Dcell post-processing and testing unit, which together can produce cast-equivalent metal parts in hours instead of days or weeks. The system includes two 20-foot containers with twist locks, a ruggedized, mobile metal 3D printer that can produce high-density metal parts in a range of materials, and a fully equipped post-processing shop—including a heat treatment furnace, CNC three-axis mill, tooling, and testing equipment. EMU can be transported on a single platform (truck trailer/ship/plane).

RIMPAC and Trident Warrior included approximately 29 nations, 40 surface ships, three submarines, 14 national land forces, over 150 aircraft and more than 25,000 personnel trained and operating in and around the Hawaiian Islands during the exercise. The events provided a training opportunity while fostering and sustaining cooperative relationships among participants.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.