US Navy delivers 2,000 3D printed tools
A team of two engineers at FRCE transformed a six-month procurement into a two-week delivery using DLP
According to the US Navy, a two-person team at Fleet Readiness Center East (FRCE) leveraged additive manufacturing to answer a critical tooling need for the F-35 Lightning II—delivering 2,000 O-ring installation tools in just days. The request came directly from the F-35 Joint Program Office, prompting engineers Jeremy Bunting and Ken Murphy to act fast.
Rather than endure the six-month wait traditional procurement would demand, the team selected digital light processing (DLP), which allowed them to produce entire batches in just over an hour—regardless of whether they were printing one tool or 60.
“This is an incredible success story for additive manufacturing,” said Randall Lewis, head of the Advanced Technology and Innovation (ATI) Team that runs the Innovation Lab. “Work like this… is exactly why FRC East has been designated the Commander, Fleet Readiness Centers Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence.”
Once the first batch of 20 tools passed evaluation, slight modifications were made, and the rest were printed and distributed across the Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and allied militaries. Tools even reached MALS-14 at Cherry Point, proving how AM can drastically outpace traditional supply chains.
“Projects like this positively impact naval aviation’s capability, readiness, and lethality,” said Robert Lessel, chief engineer at Commander, Fleet Readiness Centers. “It’s all about warfighting and supporting our warfighters.”
The Innovation Lab’s single 2,000-unit order nearly matched its entire 2024 output in volume—yet Bunting remains unfazed. “This job was unique in quantity, but solving problems fast with additive manufacturing is just what we do.” Bunting wants AM to become so integrated that it stops being exciting. “My catch line is that we’re trying to make additive manufacturing ‘boring,’” he said. “We want it to be routine—just another tool in the artisan’s kit.”
With $1 billion in annual revenue and over 4,000 personnel, the US Navy’s FRCE’s Innovation Lab is setting the tone for how the US military can adopt fast, scalable, tech-forward solutions—without sacrificing quality, readiness, or response time.
