1. 3-D Printers Will Create Parts and Gear for Sailors Jason Hatfield BA 516 Summer 2013 www.militarytimes.com/article/20130607/NEWS04/306070017/

2. ● The Navy will start to experiment with 3-D printing later this year by setting up printers to produce custom-designed plastic parts and gadgets that crews can use. Examples include small parts like clips, brackets and gas caps. ● The service envisions future applications for the technology, such as building ammunition. ● Additive manufacturing is designed to rapidly field parts on demand using materials such as metal, rubber and plastic.

3. ● Aviation supply depots are using it to make castings for parts no longer sold and naval engineers are using it to build ship models

4. How it works ● If you need an unusual part not offered in the supply system. The first step would be to take it to the 3-D printing center where a civilian technician will see if the design for the part exists. ● If not, he can create a 3-D “point cloud” model. ● A 3-D graphic will appear onscreen and the sailor will verify it’s correct. If it is, the technician will hit the “print” button and, in about five hours, the part will be ready for pickup.

5. How it works ● The sailor can then inspect the part and test to see that it fits right. ● If it doesn’t, the part can be reshaped and printed again. ● Officials hope to create an electronic database of specific widgets and thingamajigs that sailors often need.

6. What it could do ● The machines must be able to produce items that match the intended design consistently and stand up to military specifications. ● Right now, metal printing requires heavy-duty infrastructure not easily shifted onto a ship. ● Fashioning objects out of multiple materials remains at the cutting edge and very expensive.

7. What it could do ● Submarine tenders and other Military Sealift Command ships could become “floating factories” capable of printing on demand. ● Other possibilities: printing warfare implements, from ammunition to an armed drone that “flies right out of the printer”; or beachmasters using a giant printer to pour concrete for beachhead structures. ● The possibilities of one day printing a sailor’s chow or even printing new organs from human tissue.