Decision support for additive manufacturing deployment in remote or austere environments

Abstract

Purpose Additive manufacturing (AM) can reduce the process supply chain and encourage manufacturing innovation in remote or austere environments by producing an array of replacement/spare parts from a single raw material source. The wide variety of AM technologies, materials, and potential use cases necessitates decision support that addresses the diverse considerations of deployable manufacturing. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews with potential users are conducted in order to establish a general deployable AM framework. This framework then forms the basis for a decision support tool to help users determine appropriate machines and materials for their desired deployable context. Findings User constraints are separated into process, machine, part, material, environmental, and logistical categories to form a deployable AM framework. These inform a “tiered funnel” selection tool, where each stage requires increased user knowledge of AM and the deployable context. The tool can help users narrow a database of candidate machines and materials to those appropriate for their deployable context. Research limitations/implications Future work will focus on expanding the environments covered by the decision support tool and expanding the user needs pool to incorporate private sector users and users less familiar with AM processes. Practical implications The framework in this paper can influence the growth of existing deployable manufacturing endeavors (e.g. Rapid Equipping Force Expeditionary Lab – Mobile, Army’s Mobile Parts Hospital, etc.) and considerations for future deployable AM systems. Originality/value This work represents novel research to develop both a framework for deployable AM and a user-driven decision support tool to select a process and material for the deployable context.

Guest editorial

“…Below is a short description of the six papers in this issue. Meisel et al (2016) in their paper "Decision support for additive manufacturing deployment in remote or austere environments" focus on particular kinds of niche applications for additive manufacturing, niche applications in remote or austere environments. Contemporary examples are military applications to provide parts near to the battlefield or near to the operation of the military forces.…”

Development of a Resilient 3-D Printer for Humanitarian Crisis Response

“…A 3-D printer is only as useful as the products that it is able to make, therefore any 3-D printer used in humanitarian response must be able to reliably and efficiently make high-functioning, customizable parts that are relevant to disaster-type situations [2,3,5,33]. In order to accommodate as many of the diverse needs that may arise in a humanitarian crisis as possible, a 3-D printer should be able to manufacture a large range of product sizes [2,10,31,34] and with as many materials as is possible [2,31].…”

“…This must include being able to operate in settings with minimal to no power sources [2,3,5,10,35,36] or telecommunication connections [10,16]. In the event of the machine failing, it should be able to be easily repaired with locally available parts, materials and tools, as supply chains are inherently unreliable [2,[33][34][35]].…”

“…As transportation situations and infrastructure are often compromised during humanitarian crises, it is important that the 3-D printer designed to be easily transported to anywhere within a crisis zone. This includes being both portable enough to accommodate a wide ranges of transportation types and be durable enough to not sustain damage during transportation [5,31,33,34].…”

“…A 3-D printer designed for use in crisis scenarios must be able to reliably fabricate parts despite a variety of adverse environmental conditions including high/low temperatures [2,34], humidity [5,10,34], wind [10], dust [2,16,34] and unstable surfaces [10]. The 3-D printer should also not contribute negatively to the environment by creating excessive amounts of plastic waste or giving off harmful fumes [35].…”