US Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) to install XSPEE3D

SPEE3D has partnered with CAMRE (Consortium for Additive Manufacturing Research and Education) to accelerate the adoption of metal-based additive manufacturing to support the US Tri-Service Maritime forces, which includes the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. The company’s XSPEE3D printer will be utilized by the US Naval Postgraduate School by military graduate students and Ph.D. candidates, as well as research and development professionals.

CAMRE reportedly plans to leverage the XSPEE3D printer and its proprietary Cold Spray Additive Manufacturing (CSAM) technology to explore its maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) role for ships and vessels – both surface and undersea – and aircraft and ground equipment. During contested military trials and exercises, they will test and evaluate the technology’s capabilities on the ground and onboard an amphibious warfare ship.

“The Naval Postgraduate School chose the XSPEE3D metal 3D printer because of its expeditionary nature that allows it to be contained inside a rugged and deployable metal container and deployed anywhere, including harsh field conditions. Uniquely, it runs on heated compressed air and does not require inert gasses or lasers, reducing risk to the operator. We were also impressed with its capabilities relating to build speeds and maximum part size and its lineup of current and future materials,” said Chris Curran, Program Manager for CAMRE.

This announcement follows the successful field trial of SPEE3D technology at the Marine Corps Annual Integrated Training Exercise (ITX) 4-23, where SPEE3D participated alongside CAMRE to deploy WarpSPEE3D to print crucial parts that were broken – brought from ground support. SPEE3D was the only additive manufacturing company invited to the exercise.

Warfighters and maintainers require on-demand technology to quickly produce metal repair and replacement parts at the point-of-need to help minimize downtime and stay in the fight. XSPEE3D offers a containerized, ruggedized, deployable additive manufacturing capability that can function in austere environments while exposed to the elements. While the WarpSPEE3D is not containerized, it is well-suited for shop or depot use, and proven to be expeditionary-capable in field trials with the Australian, US, and UK militaries.

“We’re thrilled to partner with CAMRE to bring access to our CSAM technology that allows them to integrate efforts with our company further, as well as with NAVSEA and Penn State University’s Applied Research Lab,” said Chris Harris, Vice President of Defense for the Americas at SPEE3D.

In recent years, SPEE3D has experienced significant growth in the global adoption of its technology, particularly within the US and UK Defense sectors. With the Naval Post Graduate School as the latest organization to utilize SPEE3D’s patented cold spray metal AM technology, there are now several organizations, including MTC and the British Army, that have acquired an XSPEE3D since its official launch last year, at Land Forces 2022. In the US, SPEE3D technology is also to be used in other projects, such as the development of sub-safe materials for US Army submarines. Additionally, later this year, XSPEE3D will undergo testing to assess its capability to effectively manufacture metal parts in freezing conditions as part of the Office Of The Secretary Of Defense Manufacturing Technology’s ‘Point Of Need Challenge‘.