New type of multi-polymer filament for commonly-used desktop 3-D printers

Parts produced with these printers historically have had poor strength and toughness, which prevented affordable printers from being used to resupply military parts on demand, especially at deployed locations, until now. The Army's new material overcomes those deficiencies, potentially allowing Soldiers to use low-cost printers to create parts that, once subjected to a few hours of heat, can achieve mechanical properties robust enough to withstand the rigors of field operations.

This breakthrough is an important step forward for Army expeditionary manufacturing, said Dr. Eric D. Wetzel, who leads the Emerging Composites team and serves as the research area leader for Soldier Materials at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory. "The Army would like to be able to print parts in the field to simplify logistics by carrying digital part files instead of physical parts, but to date, the technologies for producing high-strength parts have not been practical in an expeditionary setting. These printers are too large, energy-hungry, delicate or messy for starters, and their feedstocks can require specialized storage requirements."

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