Austal Introduces 3D Parts Printing Platform

Austal USA of Mobile plans to introduce 3D printing to help produce parts quicker for the nuclear submarines the U.S. Navy wants, AL.com reports. It demonstrated a new digital platform this week called Digital Secure Exchange for Additive (Digital SEA) that the company says will “enable trusted sharing of manufacturing data among the Navy, equipment manufacturers and certified additive manufacturing suppliers.” Additive manufacturing is the use of 3D printing and other advanced techniques to produce parts. In the Navy’s case, they may be extremely specialized and may be required to meet precise and confidential specifications. Austal is already heavily involved in the field. It has an advanced technology team and leads the operation of the Navy Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence in Danville, Virginia. Austal said it is “directly supporting the production of more than 70 supplier-manufactured AM parts scheduled for fleet installation.” It added that it is already working with a roster of partner companies to implement Digital SEA and explore new advances in additive manufacturing.