“The introduction of Additive Manufacturing (AM) into naval operations helps readiness and self-sufficiency,” mentioned Rear Adm. Brendan McLane, commander, Naval Floor Power Atlantic.
Additive manufacturing (AM) – extra generally often known as 3D printing – is the method of becoming a member of supplies to make components from 3D mannequin information, often layer upon layer, versus subtractive manufacturing and formative manufacturing methodologies. Whether or not creating a high quality of life merchandise or a complicated machine half, AM facilitates manufacturing on the point-of-need when time and operational availability matter.
The gear, put in underneath a joint effort between Commander, Naval Floor Power Atlantic and Naval Sea Programs Command (NAVSEA) Know-how Workplace, consists of the Phillips Additive Hybrid system, which integrates a Meltio3D laser steel wire deposition head on a Haas TM-1 laptop numerical management mill. The Haas TM-1 platform has been confirmed to function reliably in an afloat atmosphere aboard a number of plane carriers. Integrating the Meltio3D deposition head with the Haas TM-1 supplies each an additive and subtractive manufacturing functionality throughout the similar system, rising effectivity and decreasing waste compared with typical machining.
The Phillips Additive Hybrid system prints 316L stainless-steel, a prevalent materials in U.S. Navy ship methods. Whereas stainless-steel additive manufacturing onboard naval ships is new, it additionally represents an development in offering Sailors with industrial-level manufacturing capabilities to print particular person components for methods that beforehand haven’t been available with out procuring all the system at considerably larger price. The 3D printer’s advantages are twofold – it really works to maximise operational availability and reduces the demand on conventional and Navy-specific provide chains. Moreover, NAVSEA engineers put in a second 3D printer to supply polymer (plastic) parts onboard Bataan. This printer allows the ship’s crew to print any of the NAVSEA developed 300+ AM Technical Information Packages that outline the required design configuration and procedures to fabricate a component and guarantee it performs correctly.
“These printers have the flexibility to assist the Navy overcome each obsolescence points for ships and methods which have service lives measured in many years and straight contribute to enhanced operational availability of our methods and ships,” mentioned NAVSEA Chief Engineer Rear Adm. Jason Lloyd.
The Navy’s efforts to leverage AM illustrate enterprise-wide enterprise course of reform and innovation. NAVSEA material consultants and trade companions are working to check, consider, and area essentially the most superior AM applied sciences to enhance readiness and enhance capabilities, as demonstrated on USS Bataan.
Bataan, a multi-purpose amphibious assault ship, carries greater than 2,500 Sailors and Marines when absolutely embarked, and is the fifth ship of the Navy’s Wasp-class ships. She was commissioned Sept. 20, 1997, and is the second U.S. Navy warship to bear the identify. CVL-29 was an Independence-class small plane provider that was commissioned in November 1943. After serving in each World Conflict II and the Korean battle, CVL-29 was decommissioned in 1954.
NAVSEA is the most important of the Navy’s six system instructions, chargeable for the constructing, shopping for and sustaining ships, submarines and methods for the U.S. Navy. NAVSEA’s Know-how Workplace is main a number of areas of analysis and growth in analysis of AM gear, utilizing information not solely from deployed belongings, but additionally shore aspect lab actions, to achieve a important understanding of how the gear will carry out underneath shipboard circumstances. These evaluations will make sure that the present and future shipboard implementations of this gear are fabricating components repeatedly and reliably, thus permitting Sailors to deal with an rising variety of functions.
