Metal Powder Works & Austal USA Form Partnership Surrounding US Navy 3D Printing

There are few companies that have been more integral than Austal USA to the U.S. Navy’s ongoing additive manufacturing (AM) buildup. Among other steps that the subsidiary of the Australian maritime giant has taken in recent years to help fortify the U.S. shipbuilding supply chain, Austal USA led the effort to establish the Navy’s AM Center of Excellence (CoE) in Danville, Virginia, opened in 2022.

Austal USA’s latest activities involve the formation of a partnership with Pittsburgh-based metal powders supplier Metal Powder Works (MPW). Via the agreement, Austal USA, an existing MPW customer, will work with MPW to co-develop powder specifications designated for Austal USA’s own purposes, including work taking place at the AM CoE.

MPW has already demonstrated that its materials meet the US Navy’s standards, and earlier this year, the company secured a contract to sell a containerized version of its proprietary DirectPowder system to the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS). Uniquely, MPW’s DirectPowder process enables users to develop application-specific feedstock, giving a customer like the U.S. Navy increased flexibility as it pinpoints the most viable areas for leveraging AM.

In the last couple of days, Austal USA also announced an expanded partnership with shipbuilding software provider SSI. Austal USA plans to incorporate SSI’s ShipbuildingPLM software across all its naval and commercial projects, further reinforcing Austal USA’s commitment to accelerating its use of digital manufacturing technologies like AM.

In a press release about MPW’s partnership with Austal USA, John Barnes, CEO of MPW, said, “We are delighted to formalize our partnership with Austal USA, operator of the US Navy’s [AM CoE] and a critical supplier to the U.S. Navy. This partnership positions MPW’s DirectPowder technology within a strategic naval supply chain initiative at a time when the US Department of Defense is making significant investments in [AM] capabilities. With both companies manufacturing in the United States, we are well positioned to support the domestic defense industrial base and look forward to expanding our collaboration as Austal scales [AM] across its naval programs.”

The Director of Advanced Technologies at Austal USA, Dr. Scott Kasen, said, “Austal USA is committed to advancing manufacturing technologies that strengthen our capabilities as a US defense prime contractor. Through our operation of the Navy’s [AM CoE], we are at the forefront of deploying [AM] solutions across the maritime industrial base. Our partnership with Metal Powder Works provides access to high-performance metal powders specifically optimized for these applications, and the DirectPowder Process offers unique flexibility to tailor powder characteristics to the exacting requirements of naval manufacturing.”

Aside from the fact that Austal USA was already an MPW customer, this is a logical partnership for a variety of reasons. The potential for the AM CoE to benefit from the know-how that the NPS gains with its mobilized DirectPowder system, and the potential for the NPS to gain from the AM CoE’s know-how, in turn, should add considerable value to the work being done by both organizations.

The possibility that mobilized powder production systems gain traction would also be especially relevant to the maritime industry, which is already leading the way on mobilized production with AM. And Austal USA and MPW also have ties to both Australia and the U.S., with MPW’s stock trading on the ASX.

Above all, though, I think that the idea of developing application-specific materials fits perfectly with what the U.S. Navy is attempting to do with its AM buildup over the next decade. The branch knows it wants to use more AM, but the precise nature of that demand is still very much undetermined. The DirectPowder system would thus seem to be an ideal solution for maximizing agility under those circumstances.

In a similar way, there’s a great opportunity here for Austal USA to explore the overlap between AM demand signals coming from both the commercial and naval divisions. The U.S.’s commercial shipbuilding capabilities need just as much attention as the nation’s military shipbuilding capacity, and both areas would be best-served by synergizing flexibility.

Featured image courtesy of the US Navy AM CoE