Lockheed Martin announces expansion of 16000 square feet 3D printing center

Recently, US military industry giant Lockheed Martin announced that it will significantly increase its additive manufacturing capabilities and expand its factory in Texas. The expansion project includes approximately 16000 square feet of dedicated space for 3D printing technology, and the addition of some of the largest large format multi laser printers in the space (it is worth noting that Lockheed Martin emphasized the purchase of NXG XII equipment from Nikon SLM instead of Velo 3D, which it cooperates with on hypersonic missile projects), as well as advanced heat treatment and testing equipment. This setup aims to significantly enhance the rapid development and production of additive manufacturing parts in Lockheed Martin's operations.

We will continue to invest in additive manufacturing technology to provide value to our customers, enabling our engineers to innovate and quickly integrate new product designs and features into production workshops, "said Tom Carrubba, Vice President of Production Operations at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. This enables us to create cost-effective modular designs that simplify both large and small batch production processes.

This 3D printing technology space expansion is part of Lockheed Martin's 1LMX digital transformation plan. 1LMX is Lockheed Martin's mission driven business and digital transformation program, in which Lockheed Martin will transform end-to-end business processes and systems, and create a model-based enterprise with fully integrated digital threads throughout the entire product lifecycle. The program aims to incorporate additive manufacturing into the early stages of product development. According to Hector Sandoval, a researcher at Lockheed Martin, this integration is a tool to reduce technical risks, improve product performance, and shorten development and delivery time.

Using this state-of-the-art large-scale platform additive manufacturing technology at Lockheed Martin enables us to quickly iterate and manufacture all of our products, saving costs and achieving design freedom for all of our customers, "said Brian Kaplun, a researcher at Lockheed Martin. Additive manufacturing lives in the digital world, which allows us to provide support to customers in a more flexible and responsive way than using traditional design and manufacturing methods.

3D Printing Applications
For decades, Lockheed Martin has been improving its additive manufacturing process to enable the company to deliver systems with higher speed, agility, innovation, and competitiveness. In terms of additive manufacturing applications, Lockheed Martin has redesigned hydraulic manifolds traditionally made from large aluminum blocks. By utilizing the design freedom provided by additive manufacturing, the team is able to create more direct and efficient paths between hydraulic connections, thereby improving performance while significantly reducing weight.

The aluminum manifold processed once is redesigned for 3D printing
The company will also extend the application of additive manufacturing to its various products, including the multi mission Mako hypersonic missile, where additive manufacturing is used to produce guidance shells and tail wing components. This method not only meets strict requirements, but also costs and time are only a small part compared to traditional subtractive manufacturing methods.

The ongoing Mako hypersonic missile operation
Lockheed Martin is also applying additive manufacturing in its traditional projects, such as printing components for the F-35 simulator cockpit and GMLRS. The combination of model-based engineering methods and expertise in additive manufacturing enables the company to redesign the GMLRS antenna assembly testing unit, thereby reducing the number of parts and lowering costs and production time.

Investment in the field of 3D printing
Lockheed Martin not only deploys additive manufacturing in its own operations, but also actively influences the broader 3D printing and manufacturing industry through investments, acquisitions, and other means.

In December 2022, Lockheed Martin completed a strategic investment in Sintavia, an advanced thermodynamic component additive design company and manufacturer for the aerospace and defense industries, in response to President Joe Biden's "AM Forward" initiative launched at the White House in May 2022. AM Forward is a fully voluntary agreement aimed at strengthening the US supply chain by supporting US suppliers in adopting and deploying additive manufacturing.

In February 2023, Lockheed Martin announced an equity investment in American aviation motor company H3X. Lockheed Martin will actively assist H3X in developing highly integrated modular aviation motor systems, with the goal of providing the required motor power density and corresponding fault tolerance for 50 to 100 seat aircraft.

In June 2023, Lockheed and Raytheon invested $12.5 million in 3D printing company Fortify. Fortify is a startup company specializing in 3D printing of polymer composite materials. The company's expertise demonstrated in collaboration with various departments of Lockheed Martin, including radar missile guidance, fighter jets, drones, etc., has successfully transformed Lockheed and Raytheon from Fortis' largest customers to investors.

In addition, in August 2024, Lockheed Martin announced a major acquisition of Terran Orbital for $450 million, aimed at revolutionizing satellite manufacturing. Terran Orbital is the first to use 3D printing to produce satellites that are lighter, stronger, and more efficient than traditional methods.

Source: Yangtze River Delta Laser Alliance