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Marines Corps Adds 3D Manufacturing Support for Warfighters

March 4, 2019
Posted by Kimberly Underwood
Marines will now have access to round-the-clock assistance for their 3D manufacturing needs, the Marine Corps Systems Command reports.Credit: Shutterstock/Alexander Tolstykh

With the establishment of the Advanced Manufacturing Operations Cell, or AMOC, at the Marine Corps Systems Command, Marines can now get round-the-clock support for 3D printing, the command announced last week.

The AMOC team will be on hand to answer questions, field requests for 3D printing, as well as “fully vet” any part that requires fabrication by a Marine organization, which includes required legal and safety reviews. The AMOC is not limited to helping with 3D printing, but can assist with all forms of manufacturing and sustainment, reported Monique Randolph, of the command's Office of Pubic Affairs.

The Lethality of Software

February 15, 2019
By George I. Seffers
Rear Adm. Boris Becker, commander of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, speaks during a panel at West 2019. Photo by Michael Carpenter

Artificial intelligence, machine learning, advanced manufacturing, blockchain, 5G, the Internet of Things, quantum computing, data science, cloud computing and cybersecurity all have one thing in common: information.

Rear Adm. Boris Becker, USN, commander of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, made that point during a panel session at the AFCEA-USNI West 2019 Conference in San Diego. “It’s information in warfare and information as warfare,” he added.

U.S. Marines 3D Print a Concrete Footbridge

January 29, 2019
Posted by Kimberly Underwood
U.S. Marines with 1st Marine Logistics Group (MLG) work together to secure a concrete bridge support column during a 3D concrete printing exercise at Camp Pendleton, California in December. The 1rst MLG worked with the Marine Corps Systems Command’s Advanced Manufacturing Operations Cell and the Army Corps of Engineers, to print the concrete bridge parts and evaluate the technology for future Marine Corps applications. Credit: U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Robert Bliss

Using a special 3D printer called ACES, or Automated Construction of Expeditionary Structures, U.S. Marines from the 1st Marine Logistics Group, along with the Marine Corps Systems Command’s Advanced Manufacturing Operations Cell and the Army Corps of Engineers, created a concrete footbridge in December.

The Marines printed and assembled the bridge during the service’s annual Steel Knight exercise to demonstrate the ability to use concrete 3D printing in an operational environment, the service reported. The Marines trained on how to operate ACES and incorporate new equipment into the process.

LLNL Researchers Debut New Class of 3D-Printed Metamaterials

December 7, 2018
Posted by Julianne Simpson
Researchers injected a magnetorheological (MR) fluid into hollow lattice structures built on LLNL’s Large Area Projection Microstereolithography (LAPµSL) platform, which 3D prints objects with microscale features over wide areas using light and a photosensitive polymer resin. Photo by Julie Mancini/LLNL

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have developed a new class of metamaterials that can almost instantly respond and stiffen 3D-printed structures when exposed to a magnetic field. The development has huge implications for next-generation helmets, wearable armor and countless other innovations.

These new “field-responsive mechanical metamaterials” (FRMMs) use a vicious, magnetically responsive fluid that is manually injected into the hollow struts and beams of 3D-printed lattices. Unlike other shape-morphing materials, the structure of the FRMMs does not change.

Researchers Advance the Art of 3D Printing Origami

October 23, 2018
Posted by George I. Seffers
Researchers used digital light processing to advance the art of 3D printing complex origami structures. (Credit: Christopher Moore)

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have created a one-step approach to fabricating complex origami structures whose lightweight, expandability and strength could offer a wide range of benefits, including biomedical devices and equipment used in space exploration. Until now, making such structures has involved multiple steps, more than one material and assembly from smaller parts.

U.S. Navy Replaces Obsolete Part With 3D Printing

September 12, 2018
By Ali Cybulski
Stephen Cox, chief engineer at SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific’s RESTORE Lab in San Diego, uses a laser scanner. Credit: Alan Antczak

When neither the original parts nor the original cast were available to repair the U.S. Air Force’s AN/TRC-194 antenna, experts from Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) stepped in with their 3D printing technology.

Experts Identify Emerging Technologies

July 3, 2018
By Maryann Lawlor
Advances in manufacturing techniques will deeply impact a variety of businesses such as building construction. They will be particularly useful as part of emergency response efforts to reconstruct homes quickly. Credit: Shutterstock/benik.at

As the tentacles of technology reach further and deeper into mainstream uses, their influence on the job market, man-machine interactions, government agencies and the military will grow exponentially. Capabilities once thought of as fodder for science fiction have become science fact at such unpredictable speeds organizations will need to understand the implications quickly if they hope to take advantage of the benefits they offer and not fall behind the curve.

New Technique Allows Faster 3-D Printing

December 11, 2017
 
By using laser-generated, hologram-like 3-D images flashed into photosensitive resin, researchers can build complex parts in a fraction of the time of traditional layer-by-layer printing. Credit: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

By using laser-generated, hologram-like 3D images flashed into photosensitive resin, researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL), along with collaborators at UC Berkeley, the University of Rochester and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), have discovered they can build complex 3-D parts in a fraction of the time of traditional layer-by-layer printing, according to an LLNL press release.

The novel approach is called “volumetric” 3-D printing, and is described in the journal Science Advances, published online on December 8.

Pursuing Big Ideas No One Else Dares

August 1, 2016
By George I. Seffers
Remedium Technologies is developing a product called Hemogrip, a handheld, lightweight canister that delivers an expanding hemostatic biopolymer foam for the rapid treatment of heavy bleeding within a body cavity.

The National Science Foundation is funding a remarkable array of biomedical technology solutions to help patients from mere hours after birth to days before death. Innovations include a protein-based implant for restoring vision, a method for 3-D printing with human tissue and a man-made material that mimics bone. 

Researchers Achieve Nanoscale Benefits at Microscale

July 19, 2016
 
Researchers have created a 3-D printed lattice that offers both strength and flexibility and may benefit the defense and aerospace industries.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) engineers have achieved unprecedented scalability in 3-D printed architectures of arbitrary geometry, opening the door to super-strong, ultra-lightweight and flexible metallic materials for aerospace, the military and the automotive industry, according to a published announcement.

Batteries May Be Dying and Dying and Dying

June 1, 2016
By George I. Seffers
Batteries may be essential to the modern world, but recent breakthroughs in supercapacitor research achieved by government and university scientists could signal the end for batteries.

The common battery may not keep going and going and going after all. A recent scientific advance—the first successfully 3-D printed supercapacitors using an ultralightweight graphene aerogel—could lead to the end of the ubiquitous power source. The breakthrough also could allow greater flexibility in the design of electronics and provide the juice for high-powered military systems. 

Autodesk Awarded 3-D Printing CRADA

August 19, 2015
 

Under an 18-month Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories will use state-of-the-art software for generative design from San Rafael-based Autodesk Inc. as it studies how new material microstructures, arranged in complex configurations and printed with additive manufacturing techniques, will produce objects with physical properties that were never before possible. LLNL researchers will bring to bear several key technologies, such as additive manufacturing, material modeling and architected design (arranging materials at the micro and nanoscale through computational design).

Printing 3D Bridges

August 23, 2012
By George Seffers

A group of architects at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia have created a solar-powered, eco-friendly, robotic, 3D printer capable of building bridges and other structures from soil and a liquid binder. Known as the Stone Spray Project, the endeavor pushes the boundaries of digitial manufacturing and on-site fabrication machines.

U.S. Army Ponders 3-D Printed Food For Troops

November 6, 2014
By Sandra Jontz

If it’s said good things come in small packages, imagine the edible delights that might come from a 3-D printer.

One day, it might not be left to the imagination as scientists from the U.S. Army’s Natick Research Center are studying just that—printed food. (We wonder if the heated toner smell will be optional.)

The Army has not begun printing food; in fact, it does not yet have a printer. But it has the idea and the funding for next year to research the potential capabilities of 3-D food printers.

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