Army to print guns, grenades, and more with new 3D system

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/02/11/army-to-print-guns-grenades-and-more-with-new-3d-system/?cmpid=prn_military



Army to print guns, grenades, and more with new 3D system
By Allison Barrie
Published February 11, 2013

Engineers are revolutionizing the way troops get the weapons they need, taking the old 2D system of restocking into the third dimension -- and simultaneously making the process faster and cheaper.

To obtain a wide range of parts, from grenade safety pins and trigger assemblies to turret parts and cannon breeches, the Army currently reaches out to manufacturers with an "official product representation," a technical data package or TDP. These include 2D drawings, basic dimensions and tolerances and other data, and manufacturers use them to set up production.

The manufacturing world works with 3D data however, and modern machines use the computer aided design (CAD) language, meaning manufacturers take the Army's 2D data and convert it to a 3D CAD format. This conversion process could take a team a week or more, and the government picks up the tab.

But thanks to a joint Picatinny Arsenal and Aberdeen Proving Ground Army Research Laboratory project, the Army can now provide manufacturers with part specifications in an interactive 3D format that can be easily read by modern machines.