Print what you actually need on board ship... repair parts... These ships have big inventories of parts that they know will wear out, parts that could break, and of course... consumable munitions.
These are the things you print aboard ship.
Rather than giving a ship a huge inventory of repair parts, you give them a few printers and the raw materials to print whatever is needed.
This can't work with everything... at least with our current level of technology. But the idea should be to give the Navy more space i
I discussed with some others before in that printing on a ship or forward deployed base is a waste of money, time, and space. I could see the various depots having printing shops, that makes sense. That'd certainly save on local inventory.
Another factor is MILSPEC, they'd have to MILSPEC it all again for 3D printed parts. Not too hard but expensive an time consuming.
Well, that assumes the ships aren't given a proper 3d printer that can print the literal parts you need to milspec. We have printers that can pump out parts of the aerospace industry so they can print parts for your ship.
BUT you need that level of printer. And then you need to do a cost/weight evaluation to make sure you're actually making a good trade.
Only on the largest ships am I guessing this might make sense.
But think of it... a major issue for the ships is having all the repair parts for all the planes AND the ship and various other things.
What if you could print out a lot of the parts from some feedstock material. Print the part out of titanium or whatever works for you.
Why are they printing this? (Score:2)
Print what you actually need on board ship... repair parts... These ships have big inventories of parts that they know will wear out, parts that could break, and of course... consumable munitions.
These are the things you print aboard ship.
Rather than giving a ship a huge inventory of repair parts, you give them a few printers and the raw materials to print whatever is needed.
This can't work with everything... at least with our current level of technology. But the idea should be to give the Navy more space i
I agree (Score:1)
Re:I agree (Score:2)
Well, that assumes the ships aren't given a proper 3d printer that can print the literal parts you need to milspec. We have printers that can pump out parts of the aerospace industry so they can print parts for your ship.
BUT you need that level of printer. And then you need to do a cost/weight evaluation to make sure you're actually making a good trade.
Only on the largest ships am I guessing this might make sense.
But think of it... a major issue for the ships is having all the repair parts for all the planes AND the ship and various other things.
What if you could print out a lot of the parts from some feedstock material. Print the part out of titanium or whatever works for you.