SPEE3D brings Additive Manufacturing to US Navy’s first SALVEX exercise
June 3, 2024
SPEE3D, based in Melbourne, Australia, is participating in the Naval Sea Systems Command’s (NAVSEA) first-ever Salvage Exercise (SALVEX) at the Naval Base Pearl Harbour in Hawaii, which started on May 13, 2024. SPEE3D, in conjunction with the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), is deploying the XSPEE3D and SPEE3Dcell Cold Spray Additive Manufacturing to help ‘save’ a ship that will be destroyed at sea and towed back to port. US Navy reservists will be trained to operate the XSPEED to build crucial metal parts on demand.
The US Navy’s goal at SALVEX is to validate Additive Manufacturing technology to address maintenance operation anticipated to improve ship material conditions and battle damage repair. CSPEE3D is expected to be well suited to the task as a containerised, rugged, and easily deployable Additive Manufacturing machine that can build parts in remote locations and harsh conditions. XSPEE3D manufactures metal parts up to 1 x 0.7m in hours, from a variety of metals, including aluminium, aluminium bronze, stainless steel, and copper.
In addition, the SPEE3Dcell post-processing and testing unit is fully equipped, including a heat treatment furnace, CNC three-axis mill, tooling, and testing equipment.
“Ensuring the security of our nation requires technology that can successfully work in all environments – including at sea – and we’re excited to have SPEE3D join the SALVEX exercise to demonstrate their Additive Manufacturing capabilities for maritime repair,” stated a US Navy spokesperson. “Supply chain issues are prevalent, so being able to manufacture metal parts quickly and from anywhere is a huge issue that we’re excited to test and hopefully resolve.”
“SPEE3D is honoured to be selected by the US Navy once again to demonstrate our proprietary cold-spray metal Additive Manufacturing technology to help solve some of their most pressing supply chain issues in the field,” said Byron Kennedy, CEO of SPEE3D. “The opportunity to participate in an exercise where a ship will be purposefully damaged as part of a naval exercise is novel, and we are optimistic that XSPEE3D will be able to print crucial metal parts to help repair the vessel quickly.”
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