SPEE3D to Work With British Army

The British Army will acquire SPEE3D's cold-spray metal 3D printing technology to help develop the British Army’s unplanned repair capabilities. In addition to purchasing the XSPEE3D printer, which the company launched in 2022, the British Army has signed a 2-year contract to work with SPEE3D, which will involve delivering training courses, and working with the British Army’s Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.

When examining additive manufacturing solutions, defense requires technology that can quickly produce parts from known metal alloys to address real-time needs and in the field where defense forces are typically located, according to SPEE3D. XSPEE3D is a solution in the market that addresses these requirements. The printer is fully transportable as a standard shipping container with the printer and all auxiliary equipment in one box and provides on-demand manufacturing. With SPEE3D technology, parts can be manufactured and finished in hours instead of days for any vehicle and platform, from a wide range of materials, including aluminium 6061, aluminium bronze and copper.

“We are excited to be invited by the British Army to work closely together and bring our latest printer XSPEE3D to the field, offering a deployable and easy-to-use solution. Working together with defense worldwide, we have explored the impact of additive manufacturing to solve real supply chain problems by printing critical parts on demand and in rough conditions,” says Byron Kennedy, co-founder and CEO of SPEE3D.

“The British Army chose to work with SPEE3D based on their successful track record of partnering with defense forces worldwide to provide the latest additive manufacturing solutions,” says Lt. Col. Davidson Reith, British Army.

SPEE3D has worked with the military for some time now. For example, most recently SPEE3D partnered with the British Army as part of the U.S. Army’s Project Convergence program to demonstrate the impact that its cold-spray technology can have on military supply chains. In the field, the British Army and SPEE3D team were able to print replacement parts in minutes or hours, before these parts were post-processed and put to use for various armored vehicles at Fort Irwin throughout the exercise.

The company has also worked with the U.S. Navy, taking part in its REPTX exercise to test WarpSPEE3D’s deployable capabilities to print maritime military parts on demand and in various port and sea conditions. The company has also worked closely with the Australian Army on several projects over several years to test and validate metal 3D printing as a military capability for the field.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.