Army, Industry Launch Additive Manufacturing Center.

• Author: Carberry, Sean

ARLINGTON, Virginia -- The Army has partnered with SAE Government Technologies to open the Additive Manufacturing Commercialization Center, or AMCC, in Sterling Heights, Michigan, to advance 3D printing capabilities.

The centerpiece of the AMCC is the Ingersollmade Jointless Hull subsection tool--a hybrid 3D printer and metal miller that can fabricate aluminum parts and tools, said Brandon Pender, associate director for the Ground Vehicle Systems Center's Materials Division under Army Combat Capabilities Development Command.

"Right now, our plan is to put four different 3D printing technologies ... in the center," he said. But the hope is that other companies or entities will bring technologies into the SAE-owned facility for experimentation, he added.

The goal is "to commercialize advanced manufacturing technologies, so that they spin out of the government and into industry," he continued. "The reason we want that is so that it comes back to us in new designs and new manufacturing methods of making things for the Army."

The massive Jointless Hull tool uses a printer head designed by MELD Manufacturing, a woman-owned small business from Christiansburg, Virginia, he said. The friction-stirred deposition technology allows metal to be printed...