SPEE3D’s Expeditionary Manufacturing Unit (EMU) Prints 11 Metal Parts for Repair and Replacement of Defense Equipment in a Contested Environment
SPEE3D at RIMPAC
Honolulu, Hawaii, Aug. 13, 2024 – SPEE3D, a leading metal additive manufacturing company, announced the successful completion of Trident Warrior – the experimental portion of the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise – at the Marine Corps Air Station in Kaneohe Bay in Hawaii. SPEE3D deployed its Expeditionary Manufacturing Unit (EMU), a complete on-site mobile additive manufacturing solution, to print 11 cast-equivalent metal parts from aluminum and stainless steel to be studied for their material properties and viability for repairing and replacing defense equipment in a contested environment.
RIMPAC is the world’s largest international maritime exercise, and within it, Trident Warrior focuses on testing cutting-edge technologies, including additive manufacturing. A team of engineers from the Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing Research and Education (CAMRE) printed cast-equivalent replacement metal parts from EMU for the Army, Navy and Air Force, Marine, and Coast Guard. The goal of implementing SPEE3D’s proprietary cold spray additive manufacturing (CSAM) solution was to prove that additive manufacturing can help secure military supply chains by reducing the delivery time of critical parts from days to hours and at the point of need.
“SPEE3D is thrilled to be included in RIMPAC, the largest distributed advanced manufacturing demonstration the Department of Defense has ever conducted to date,” said Byron Kennedy, CEO of SPEE3D. “In particular, additive manufacturing has been a major area of interest for the Department of Defense (DoD), and together, we have the same goals to train the military and implement additive manufacturing to print crucial metal parts at the point of need to support modernization and warfighter readiness.”
Lt. Col. Michael Radigan, a member of the Marine Innovation Unit and the government lead on the CAMRE team for Trident Warrior 24 elaborated, “CAMRE facilitates getting the latest in advanced manufacturing into operational settings and finds ways to unlock additional capabilities. SPEE3D worked side-by-side with our joint participants to further research on cold spray additive manufacturing and helped us uncover best practices to apply its unique capabilities in expeditionary environments.”
A truly expeditionary solution, EMU combines SPEE3D’s metal 3D printer, XSPEE3D, with its SPEE3Dcell post-processing and testing unit, which together can produce cast-equivalent metal parts in hours instead of days or weeks, minimizing the cost of disruption and downtime. The system includes two 20-foot containers with twist locks, a ruggedized, mobile metal 3D printer that can produce high-density metal parts in a wide range of materials, and a fully-equipped post-processing shop – including a heat treatment furnace, CNC three-axis mill, tooling, and testing equipment. EMU can be transported on a single platform (truck trailer/ship/plane).
RIMPAC and Trident Warrior included approximately 29 nations, 40 surface ships, three submarines, 14 national land forces, over 150 aircraft, and more than 25,000 personnel trained and operating in and around the Hawaiian Islands during the exercise. The events provided a unique training opportunity while fostering and sustaining cooperative relationships among participants. 
