Austal USA leads and operates the US Navy’s Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence (AM CoE) in Danville, Virginia, which currently operates a large scale ARCEMY 6700 system delivered in early 2024. The AM CoE is the U.S. Navy’s flagship for AM components to meet current shipbuilding requirements, ship repair and the construction of the next generation of ships and boats. This second custom ARCEMY system, just installed and commissioned in the AM CoE, utilises an 11,000kg positioner and a linear rail of over four meters, creating a build volume up to approx.35 cubic meters to create the largest of its kind. The system is integral to the additive manufacturing (AM) capability being developed by Austal USA.
Austal USA is supporting Navy and OSD (Office of Secretary of Defense) investment in AM to significantly improve the defence supply chains and expand its post-delivery support and sustainment offerings. It is also using AM to support multiple shipbuilders, maintenance providers, the U.S. Navy, and the U.S. Coast Guard across a broad range of military ships deployed in the U.S. and its ally fleets.
AML3D CEO Sean Ebert said: “The successful delivery the custom ARCEMY system to Austal USA aligns with our ambitions to expand the range of U.S. defence work we do. AML3D already has a track record of deploying our WAM Additive Manufacturing technology in support of the U.S. Navy submarine industrial base. Those successes are translating to an adoption of additive manufacturing technology in the wider U.S. Marine Industrial Base, covering shipbuilding and munitions.
“I have recently returned from two weeks in the U.S. While there, I inspected our new U.S. facility in Ohio and met with key stakeholders, including U.S. senators, commercial and defence partners and additive manufacturing education and training bodies. The US Government’s ‘Make Shipbuilding Great Again’ initiatives are set to expand, by a factor of three, the potential U.S. Defense markets AML3D’s additive manufacturing technology can address. Additive is now endorsed for use to support US Navy shipbuilding and missile manufacturing. These are markets AML3D already had plans to access directly and through our relationships with key suppliers to the US Navy Marine Industrial base, such as Austal USA. There is increasing confidence within the U.S. defense and commercial sectors in additive manufacturing’s ability to address supply chain constraints and significantly improve supply chain efficiency and quality. This, in turn, gives me great confidence that AML3D will see an acceleration in U.S. Defence contract wins and further success in accessing additional sectors such as U.S. Utilities, Aerospace and Oil and Gas.”
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