Spee3d’s 3D Printing Tech Wins Department of Defense Point of Need Challenge

The Office of the Secretary of Defense Manufacturing Technology Program has selected metal additive manufacturing company Spee3d as a Point of Need Challenge winner. Spee3d, in partnership with Lift, a Department of Defense Manufacturing Innovation Institute, joined the competition’s Staying in the Fight Challenge and demonstrated a manufacturing solution for battlefield repair and readiness.

As a competition winner, Spee3d will receive funding from OSD ManTech and industry partners to develop the company’s proposed solution that uses its cold spray additive manufacturing technology to enable 3D printing of metal parts in sub-freezing environments, with quality similar to those created in a laboratory setting.

A follow-on demonstration of the technology will take place later in 2023 at the Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in New Hampshire, Spee3d said.

The Point of Need Challenge was held from March 8 to 9 at the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute in Pennsylvania to evaluate selected solutions that can support forward-deployed forces in austere environments. Five other tech proposals won at the event, including Deka Integrated Solutions’ portable manufacturing station for a self-administrable injectable applicator and Corsha’s zero-trust platform for securing manufacturing equipment.

All competition winners are working with their MII partners. The DOD has launched nine MIIs since 2012 to help revitalize U.S. domestic manufacturing capability.