Aerospace & Defense Technology - December 2023 - 6

Additive Manufacturing
Aside from the benefits of equipping
factories with both large-scale traditional
and focused AM manufacturing,
can AM-driven distributed manufacturing
centers bring needed agility to
domestic and global military supply
chains? This would certainly aid in
surge production. It would also help
logistics and spread-out geographical
risk, creating at the same time greater
security and shared economic benefits
among allies.
Military Application Potential
An oil and gas pilot project at IMI Critical,
a leader in control-valve technology
headquartered in the U.K., has proven
that distributed manufacturing can
work for metal products that experience
demanding environments - and which
require repeatable quality. The results
of this project have the potential to be
applied to military applications as well.
In 2022 IMI Critical took a successful
field-proven part - previously printed
on a single Velo3D metal AM system for
a major North American oil and gas customer
- and asked Velo3D to produce it
at multiple locations around the globe.
The goal was to prove that advanced AM
could solve issues of repeatability and
readiness to achieve true worldwide scalability
using the same print file on identical
yet separate machines.
The new project used the previousThis
metal AM-printed muzzle brake was created
for a defense application. Turnaround time was
two weeks versus 18 months for a cast version. 3D
printing also paves the way for exploring future
design enhancements with minimal investment or
time commitment.
Rapid AM conformal tooling, where the geometry
of the mold core or insert cooling channels can
closely follow the part profile, as above, improves
part quality, increases yields, and extends the life
of the tool.
ly tested choke valve, a high-pressure
flow-control device used in water-injection
wells to prevent issues with erosion,
noise, and vibration. The component is a
Velo3D-printed upgrade to a legacy part
manufactured through conventional
machining and brazing. The optimized
redesign helped realize the potential of
IMI Critical' s proprietary drag technology,
which manages destructive fluid flow
velocities through control valves.
The question was: can this choke valve
be made in quantity and on-demand? Can
it be made anywhere in the world by qualified
contract manufacturers? Can it be
made years later digitally without further
development and certification? These are
the same underlying questions that have
essentially driven the DoD to create their
Defense Digital Engineering Strategy.
How Velo3D and IMI Did It
The existing Velo3D print file from
Two IMI choke valves (along with material-test coupons) on a build plate after 3D printing with a Velo3D
sapphire system in 2021. This valve was printed again at six different locations in a subsequent, distributed-manufacturing
project.
6
mobilityengineeringtech.com
the 2021 test project, which included
the entire instruction set for 3D printing
it, was pulled from IMI Critical's
PLM system, and securely sent (as a
locked, " golden print file " ) to six manufacturing
sites across three continents
- four in the U.S., one in Asia and one
in Europe.
The CMs involved were Stratasys Direct
Manufacturing (Austin, Texas), Duncan
Machine Products (Duncan, Oklahoma),
Knust-Godwin (Katy, Texas), Avaco
(South Korea), and Schoeller Bleckmann
Oilfield Equipment (Austria). The sixth
print run was performed at Velo3D headquarters
in California.
After production was carried out at
each site, data for the 12 printed parts,
two from each of the six locations,
Aerospace & Defense Technology, December 2023

http://mobilityengineeringtech.com

Aerospace & Defense Technology - December 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Aerospace & Defense Technology - December 2023