NPS Students Enhance Fleet Readiness with 3D Printing Technology

 

MONTEREY -- Students and faculty from the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) conducted expeditionary advanced manufacturing research during the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) and Trident Warrior 2024 exercises demonstrating new technology applications at sea and ashore.

Ten NPS students from the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and U.S. Army, along with representatives from the school’s Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing and Research (CAMRE) and FLEETWERX, spent time at installations and aboard ships during the exercises to experiment with cutting-edge additive manufacturing equipment producing repair parts for a variety of use cases with real-world impact.

The CAMRE team aboard the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship USS Somerset (LPD 25) included NPS students, Marines from the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force and Marine Innovation Unit, and Soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division. Ashore at Marine Corps Base (MCB) Hawaii, a Joint Advanced Manufacturing Cell (JAMC), led by retired Marine Corps Col. Patrick Tucker, was assembled to focus on readiness challenges where advanced manufacturing could provide a solution.

Applying learned techniques during real scenarios in training environments like RIMPAC, which concluded early this month, allows students and operators in the fleet to better understand the importance and practical impact of their applied research in solving readiness problems.

“At NPS, our primary focus is graduate education,” said Emre Gunduz, Ph.D., an associate professor in NPS’ mechanical and aerospace engineering department and the technical director at CAMRE, who was the principal investigator, along with CAMRE program manager Chris Curran. “For Trident Warrior, the students applied their NPS education in a real operational environment, while at the same time advancing the capabilities of the Navy. This allowed NPS students to see the relevance of their studies and research to real-world Navy challenges, which could greatly enhance learning outcomes here. At the same time, we are targeting the current gaps in the rapid deployment of these emerging technologies.”

NPS Cooperative Research and Development Agreements with industry partners enabled cutting-edge equipment to be explored and included an expeditionary cold spray printer from XSPEE3D, which was co-located with the JAMC on MCB Hawaii, and a hybrid wire directed energy deposition machine from Snowbird Technologies. The Snowbird machine was installed in a 10-foot container and embarked on Somerset for an additive and subtractive capability afloat, joining a pair of Advanced Manufacturing Operational System polymer printers designed by Spencer Koroly, an engineer from Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific.

“Ship and submarine repair is one of our crucial focus areas,” said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Zachary Vrtis, an engineering duty officer currently pursuing a doctorate in mechanical engineering with a dissertation focused on metal additive manufacturing. “We are working to implement advanced metal manufacturing to better supplement traditional fabrication methods, repair fleet assets quicker, and assist in revitalizing the submarine industrial base to meet production goals.”