Defining next-generation additive manufacturing applications for the Ministry of Defence (MoD)

“Additive Manufacturing” (AM) is an emerging, highly promising and disruptive technology which is catching the attention of the Defence sector due to the versatility it is offering. Through the combination of design freedom, technology compactness and high deposition rates, technology stakeholders can potentially exploit rapid, delocalized and flexible production. Having the capability to produce highly tailored, fully dense, potentially optimized products, on demand and next to the point of use makes this emerging and immature technology a game changer in the “Defence Support Service” (DS2) sector. Furthermore, if the technology is exploited for the Royal Navy, featured with extended and disrupted supply chains, the benefits are very promising. While most of the AM research and efforts are focusing on the manufacturing/process and design opportunities/topology optimization, this paper aims to provide a creative but educated and validated forecast on what AM can do for the Royal Navy in the future. This paper aims to define the most promising next generation Additive Manufacturing applications for the Royal Navy in the 2025 – 2035 decade. A multidisciplinary methodology has been developed to structure this exploratory applied research study. Moreover, different experts of the UK Defence Value Chain have been involved for primary research and for verification/validation purposes. While major concerns have been raised on process/product qualification and current AM capabilities, the results show that there is a strong confidence on the disruptive potential of AM to be applied in front-end of DS2 systems to support “Complex Engineering Systems” in the future. While this paper provides only next-generation AM applications for RN, substantial conceptual development work has to be carried out to define an AM based system which is able to, firstly satisfy the “spares demands” of a platform and secondly is able to perform in critical environments such as at sea

Designing a WAAM based manufacturing system for defence applications

Current developments in “Wire+Arc Additive Manufacturing” (WAAM) have demonstrated the suitability of the technology for rapid, delocalized and flexible manufacturing. Providing a defence platform with the ability of on-board WAAM capability, would give the platform unique advantages such as improved availability of its systems and ability to recover its capability after being subject to shock. This paper aims to investigate WAAM technology and define a WAAM based manufacturing system for In-platform applications

A review of additive manufacturing technology and cost estimation techniques for the defence sector

“Additive Manufacturing” (AM) is a promising technology which will provide major advantages to Defence Support Service providers, given its ability of delocalised manufacturing near the point of use. The technology is gaining increasing interest due to its disruptive potential. AM groups together a wide range of different approaches which have the ability to convert a 3D file into a physical product by depositing layer upon layer of material. AM is still under development and considered an immature technology. This immaturity provides high level of uncertainty around key indicators such as time and cost. These indicators represent also key decision variables to evaluate AM and compare it with traditional manufacturing. This review paper represents an investigation of existing knowledge on AM and aims to present to the reader the various AM approaches with a detailed focus on the most applicable technologies to Defence Support Services. The paper is structured as follows, firstly the various technologies of AM and their economic aspects are presented, secondly the cost modelling techniques are investigated and finally a discussion is carried out. The contribution of this paper is to present to Defence Support Service stakeholders the various AM technologies and cost modelling techniques for measuring the product or service cost

Additive manufacturing applications in Defence Support Services: current practices and framework for implementation

This research investigates through a systems approach, “Additive Manufacturing” (AM) applications in “Defence Support Services” (DS2). AM technology is gaining increasing interest by DS2 providers, given its ability of rapid, delocalised and flexible manufacturing. From a literature review and interviews with industrial and academic experts, it is apparent that there is a lack of research on AM applications in DS2. This paper’s contribution is represented by the following which has been validated extensively by industrial and academic experts: (1) DS2 current practices conceptual models, (2) a framework for AM implementation and (3) preliminary results of a next generation DS2 based on AM. To carry out the research, a Soft System Methodology was adopted. Results from the research increased the confidence of the disruptive potential of AM within the DS2 context. The main benefits outlined are (1) an increased support to the availability given a reduced response time, (2) reduced supply chain complexity given only supplies of raw materials such as powder and wire, (3) reduced platform inventory levels, providing more space and (4) reduced delivery time of the component as the AM can be located near to the point of use. Nevertheless, more research has to be carried out to quantify the benefits outlined. This requirement provides the basis for the future research work which consists in developing a software tool (based on the framework) for experimentation purpose which is able to dynamically simulate different scenarios and outline data on availability, cost and time of service delivered

A system approach for modelling additive manufacturing in defence acquisition programs

Defence Contractors and NATOMinistry of Defences (MoDs) are currently exploiting Additive Manufacturing (AM) Technology to improve availability of defence platforms and support soldiers deployed in remote Area of Operations (AO). Additive Manufacturing is considered a disruptive technology when employed in a military context to reduce the reliance on supply chains and improve the responsiveness to Operation Tempo (OT). This papers aims at presenting a novel system approach to model the end-to-end process of delivering a product printed with AM and estimate accurately the time and costs of AM. Understanding better the time and costs of AM will allow the MoDs and Defence Contractors to perform comparison with current practices and support their decision making in AM technology acquisition