3D Printing In The Military

3D printing is a very cool technology in my opinion. This technology allows for the creation of almost anything. If it can be designed on a comput4er, then it likely can be manufactured through 3D printing. This technology definitely allows for some seriously cool  designs to come to life. If a product or part needs to have various curves to it, there isn’t an issue – 3D printing can take care of it. Hollow spaces and intricate internal pieces are also an option through 3D printing. This technology doesn’t have a problem doing that kind of thing through its layer by layer process. Maybe you’re looking to have fully functional parts to be manufactured straight out of the machine. Well, I can’t say that it will be easy, as most of the stress will go on to the designer. However, the 3D printer itself won’t have much trouble making an intricate piece that will work straight out of the machine. I wouldn’t expect circuits and electronics to be coming out of these printers anytime too soon, but there are parts removed from the machine that definitely serve their purpose – in one print.

What is one of the benefits to this technology? First off, this manufacturing technology known as 3D printing allows for the creation of some seriously intricate pieces that other forms of manufacturing can’t complete. If it can be designed through the computer, it can likely by printed. Secondly, it can serve in a variety of industries. One industry I want to highlight in the world of manufacturing, would be military. I’m not necessarily talking about manufacturing weapons or explosives, but I’m talking about something different. Imagine being a part of a battalion who is serving overseas. When a very specific part breaks down for a Humvee or vehicle, where are you going to go to pick up a replacement? Well, just the local Humvee shop right? Wrong. Military bases are becoming much more creative when it comes to dealing with issues like that. When a part breaks down, a long wait would have to occur. People would have to learn about it on the other side of the world, and the logistics of getting that part back to the specific location of a battalion would be difficult, and it would take quite a bit of time.

Through 3D printing, we could help remove this issue. Dealing with manufacturing parts overseas and having it sent over wouldn’t be much of an issue. Particularly if 3D scanning came into play, this technology would be great overseas. Artists and designers could sculpt up the needed parts on the computer, it would be printed, and the part would be replaced within a week. A week sounds much better than a few weeks, and in many cases it wouldn’t even take that long to have the part manufactured, taken out of the machine, and placed where it needed to be. 3D printing is great for this reason, as it saves time, and is very efficient. Bases overseas are already taking advantage of this through other forms of manufacturing like CNC, but this type of machining can’t produce the same kind of models.