air force

The US Air Force: Kings of 3D Printing

The US Air Force is currently one of the largest funding bodies in 3D printing. The amount of work that the Air Force is doing in 3D printing is simply…

US Air Force Designs and 3D Prints Drones with AI in Under 48 Hours

Task Force 99 is a small US Air Force (USAF) group based in Qatar, established “as an experimental unit” in October 2022. The group is part of USAF Central (USAFCENT),…

America Makes Announces Winners of AM Qualification Project Calls

Founded in 2012 as the DoD’s national manufacturing innovation institute for AM and a Manufacturing Innovation Institute (MII), America Makes, based in Youngstown, Ohio, is focused on accelerating adoption of…

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Relativity Space Lands $8.7M Air Force Contract for Real-time Flaw Detection in 3D Printing

Relativity Space has landed an $8.7 million contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to carry out real-time flaw detection during the 3D printing of large parts. The…

US Air Force Awards JuggerBot $4M for Large-format Hybrid 3D Printing

Large-format 3D printer manufacturer JuggerBot has received a $4 million grant to develop a large format 3D printer, courtesy of the Under Secretary of Defense, Research and Engineering Manufacturing Technology…

US Air Force Awards 3D Systems $10M+ Contract to Develop Large Format Metal 3D Printer

The US Air Force (USAF) has awarded 3D Systems, the additive manufacturing (AM) pioneer based in Rock Hill, South Carolina, a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract worth $10,758,261, for a “Large-format metal 3D…

US Air Force Awards $1.13M for 3D Printed Construction Retrofitting

Branch Technology, the Chattanooga-based additive construction (AC) firm, has been awarded a $1.13 million contract from the US Air Force for its proprietary Cellular Fabrication (C-Fab) technology. The Air Force…

GE Taps NUBURU for Blue Laser Metal 3D Printing

Since it first entered the additive manufacturing (AM) industry, blue laser manufacturer NUBURU (NYSE American: BURU) has made steady progress introducing its technology to various original equipment manufacturers. The latest…

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3D Printing 1987: Pratt & Whitney Gets its First 3D Printer

AMUG DiNO Jim Harrison, a Technical Sales Representative at nScrypt, has been in the 3D printing industry since its inception. In this series on the history of additive manufacturing, Jim…

Horizon Aircraft VTOL Prototype Takes Flight with 780 3D Printed Parts

As surprising it may seem to some tech skeptics, the emerging world of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aerial vehicles is, well, beginning to take off. You’ve likely seen footage…

3D Printing News Unpeeled: Novineer, Desktop Engraving for Circuits and the US Air Force

A US Air Force maintenance unit shows a pragmatic approach to implementing 3D printing for MRO and tooling in the military. The 809th Maintenance Support Squadron´s RAPID, or Reverse Engineering,…

Laser Wars: SLM Solutions Announces Order for Massive NXG XII 600E Metal 3D Printer

SLM Solutions (AM3D.DE) previously announced that it would collaborate with military research organization Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC) to build a large metal printer for the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). The resulting…

US Air Force Opens Metal 3D Printing Lab with GE

The Pacer Edge program underway by the U.S. Air Force (USAF) and General Electric (GE) is making steady progress, most recently demonstrated by the opening of a second Reverse Engineering…

US Air Force Funds Blue Laser Firm NUBURU to Make 100X Speed Metal 3D Printer

Blue laser specialist NUBURU is quickly increasing its foothold in the additive manufacturing (AM) space. In addition to receiving a series of patents and establishing a partnership for copper 3D…

US Air Force Explores Hypersonics 3D Printing at Arnolds Base

Hypersonics are a growing sector that hopes to launch missiles at speeds not just faster than sound, but even faster than that. To reach speeds beyond Mach 5, oxygen dispersion…

US Space Force Awards Launcher $1.7M Contract for 3D Printed Rocket Engines

It’s a whirlwind ride for up-and-coming startups in the booming private space industry. According to a Space Capital report, there have been $252.9 billion in cumulative global equity investments into…

US Air Force Taps GE and Optomec for Metal 3D Printing

The Biden administration recently announced a slew of new opportunities for increasing the adoption of additive manufacturing (AM) across the U.S. Initial participating companies of the AM Forward program are…

Optomec Receives $500K Contract from USAF for Additive Repair of Jet Engine Components

Metal and electronics 3D printing solutions provider Optomec was awarded a $1 million contract from the US Air Force in late 2020 to create and install a high-volume additive repair…

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US Army to Use Senvol Machine Learning for Qualification of 3D Printed Missile Parts

Senvol is building itself out to be a critical part of 3D printing infrastructure. Bit by bit, the company is making itself indispensable especially to the U.S. defense community. It…

America Makes Project Call: 3D Printed Optical Components to Support US Air Force

Ohio-based America Makes, a top collaborative partner in the US for 3D printing technology discovery, innovation, and research, just announced its latest Project Call – Additive for eXtreme Improvement in…

On-Demand Surgical Retractor 3D Printed by the U.S. Air Force

The U.S. Department of Defense is using even more of its mind-boggling budget on additive manufacturing (AM) for virtual inventory and on-demand spare parts. This time, the world’s most dangerous…

US Air Force Base in Utah Creating 3D Printed Replacement Parts for F-35 Fighter Jets

The US military has not shied away from implementing modern manufacturing methods such as 3D printing, but has actually embraced the technology. In fact, the US Air Force has used…

Air Force Uses 3D Printing to Save Thousands of Dollars…On Cups

It’s remarkable that something so small as a cup handle could be responsible for saving thousands of dollars, but cases like these are seen all the time – often in…

Air Force Saves Millions of Dollars with a Few 3D Printed Parts

It’s amazing how much money can be saved just by using 3D printing to modify items in small ways, and this is evident especially frequently in the military, where something…