AMS 2025

Military HVAC Contractor to Launch Containerized End-to-End Metal 3D Printing Platform

Share this Article

Snowbird Technologies, an HVAC original equipment manufacturer (OEM) that specializes in ruggedized solutions for the military, announced that the company will be launching its first additive manufacturing (AM) platform. The system, called the Snowbird Additive Mobile Manufacturing Technology (SAMMTech), will launch at the Sea-Air-Space Show in Washington, DC (April 3-5, 2023), hosted by The Navy League.

The SAMMTech comes containerized in a standard shipping container, which, in addition to a metal wire directed energy deposition (DED) 3D printer, houses a cutting mill designed for post-processing. The SAMMTech features gantry technology patented by Snowbird, and appears to rely on the Meltio Engine for machine integration. That seems fitting for a company in the defense sector: Meltio manufactured the deposition head for the first metal printer to be permanently installed on a US Navy ship, a Phillips Additive Hybrid.

In a press release about Snowbird’s first AM product, the company’s president, Scott Morse, commented, “This method of 3D printing allows for a wide range of materials from carbon steel to titanium. In addition, any printed part can be post-processed using the cutting mill. This combination will enable quick, high-tolerance interim and end-use parts to be produced onsite anywhere in the world.”

According to Snowbird, the SAMMTech can handle parts as large as 4.5 cubic feet, and works with a standard 3-phase 480 V industrial outlet. Thus, as with containerized printers generally, the goal is for the customer to be able to use it anywhere, in addition to the supplier’s being able to ship it anywhere in ready-to-use form.

I think that defense customers in the AM sector are about to go nuts for containerized, end-to-end printing platforms. (Australian company SPEE3D, for instance, an increasingly popular brand in the defense market, released one — the XSPEE3D — in October, 2022.) Snowbird is an especially intriguing prospect to go after that business, since the company already has extensive experience with ruggedization, as well as a lengthy presence in the military procurement market. Moreover, given that temperature control of the print environment is one of the most crucial aspects determining the success of a print, an HVAC company is a much more natural fit for entering the AM space than one might initially think.

That’s the angle to this launch that I find most notable, in terms of its relevance to the broader industry: it’s a reminder of the unique intermediate phase between startup and scale-up that 3D printing currently inhabits, similar to the PC market in the early 80s. As established as the sector already may be, there will still be many more late entrants to the AM game from adjacent legacy manufacturing sectors that could shake up the landscape quite a bit.

Images courtesy of Snowbird Technologies

Share this Article


Recent News

Formlabs Launches Lower-cost Creator Series Resins for Hobbyist 3D Printers

3devo’s Filament Maker TWO Advances Custom 3D Printing Filament Production



Categories

3D Design

3D Printed Art

3D Printed Food

3D Printed Guns


You May Also Like

From Polymers to Superalloys: 3D Printing Materials Unveiled at RAPID+TCT 2024

At RAPID + TCT 2024 in Los Angeles, new materials for 3D printing are being unveiled, featuring exciting innovations in polymers and metals. Highlights include a nickel superalloy for extreme...

Is Recycled 3D Printer Filament the Key to Sustainable Development?

Could recycled 3D printer filament be the key to sustainable development? Material extrusion 3D printers are low-cost and useful for creating dimensionally accurate, tough plastic objects made of PLA, PETG,...

Featured

3D Printed Mannequins, R2-D2s, Guitars, Drag Racers, & More at MRRF 2023

I’ve heard about it for years, but this summer, the stars finally aligned and I was able to attend a much-lauded 3D printing event in Goshen, Indiana: the annual Midwest...

3D Printing News Unpeeled: Glass and Multi Material SLA

Today we have three exciting research papers to share with you. In a paper in Nature by University of California, Irvine researchers, the mixing of multiple aerosolized materials is discussed....