Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Debralee Lutgen | ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL, Ill. – Printers hum in the daily operations of the Advanced and...... read more read more
ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL, Ill. – From a warehouse lined in orange pallet racks sitting twenty-feet high, filled with equipment and materiel storage to a brightly lit and environmentally controlled additive manufacturing production facility, the Army’s Advanced and Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence has transformed physically and developmentally in just 18 months.
In 2018, the Army designated Rock Island Arsenal – Joint Manufacturing and Technology Center the Army’s Advanced and Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence. In May 2019, the center reached initial operating capability
“Our first success story was achieving IOC by May 15,” said Randl Besse, deputy project manager, AM CoE. “That was no easy task, but with a lot of help we were able to get the construction done on the facility, equipment ordered, delivered and installed, held a rehearsal of concept drill and printed our first parts.”
After just over a year in production, the center has come a long way. They have printed more than 1,000 parts for Department of Defense and private industry partners, according to Harold (Edward) Flinn, director, Advanced Manufacturing.
“First and foremost, we learned how to operate our additive manufacturing equipment and developed a very strong team that are each capable of running every piece of equipment we’ve got in the facility,” said Besse. “Starting from an empty building with a blank canvas to having four skilled craftsmen on over eight different platforms is no easy task. We’ve also begun mentoring four other employees and increased the JMTC’s overall knowledge of additive manufacturing techniques.”
RIA-JMTC will continue to increase the knowledge of the workforce as these four employees will return to their work centers when their training is complete. Then four other employees will rotate into the center for training.
The CoE received their first order within a month of reaching IOC for 50 Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station lens covers, which were printed on a desktop printer out of a flexible material. CROWS is a remote weapon station designed to mount on a variety of vehicle platforms and support a variety of machine guns.
“This was the first time the CoE was called upon to print parts for a paying customer and these were going directly to a unit that had dead-lined vehicles due to a supply system shortage. We saved the unit time and money with this project,” said Besse. “Internally, we also learned a lot and worked around the clock and over weekends to ensure we met the project deadline. This was a fantastic team effort!”
According to Besse, the biggest challenge of the CoE ever changing and evolving over time. As the team overcomes one challenge, they move on to take on the next.
“When we did the ribbon cutting, our biggest challenge was building awareness about the technology and teaching customers that Additive Manufacturing was not going to be a solution for every problem.”
He added the key to overcoming this was through education of what AM does. He said he assured the team this technique is not a replacement for conventional manufacturing, only a tool to expand and augment production.
Currently, Besse identifies the biggest challenge of the center as the current technical limitations hindering the overall adoption of additive manufacturing in the Army.
“There are still a lot of backordered items in the supply system that we could print, but the technical data does not allow for Additive Manufacturing,” he said. “This will change over time, but it is a slow process. The Combat Capabilities Development Commands have been early adopters and seem to be taking the lead by having more parts being printed every day, testing them and building confidence in our processes and final parts.”
This is evident in that within six months of IOC, the center was contacted by CCDC to partner and complete a “60 day challenge.” This challenge included the review of approximately 60 parts for their feasibility of 3D printing. Twenty-one made the cut and were printed. Then testing began to assess their performance. One part, the M249 Spanner Wrench, was accepted as an AM part and two others are in the final stages and expected to be approved.
Today, the Army’s Advanced and Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence has the capabilities to print in multiple polymers, metals, sand and wax. Their newest capability is able to perform both additive and subtractive manufacturing on one machine. Capabilities continue to expand and Besse said he sees a bright future for the AM CoE that include new capabilities, furthering partnerships, modernization of the facility, certification and qualification of equipment and more.
“We will continue our path toward developing AM into a mainstream manufacturing capability,” he said.
The center is anticipated to reach full operational capability in fiscal year 2021.
| Date Taken: | 07.30.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 07.30.2020 14:49 |
| Story ID: | 374926 |
| Location: | ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL, ILLINOIS, US |
| Web Views: | 1,128 |
| Downloads: | 4 |
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