The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division’s Lakehurst site has recently acquired three new additive manufacturing systems to upgrade its equipment maintenance capabilities.
Two of the 3D printing platforms enable users to overhaul large objects with minimal waste, while the third system assists in NAWCAD’s reverse engineering efforts and negates the need to dismantle the parts of the object in question.
“These three systems will result in a tremendous increase in capability and will have an immediate impact to the warfighter,” said Kyle Cobb, advanced manufacturing technology lead at NAWCAD Lakehurst.
Work performed by the three new platforms, the Optomec CS-800 Directed Energy Deposition AM System, Sciaky Electron Beam AM System and the NSI X5000 Computed Tomography NDI X-Ray System, will support the Naval Air Systems Command. NAWCAD received the systems in 2019.
Additive manufacturing is a time-saving process that uses polymers and powdered metals as base materials to create objects from a 3D blueprint.