Login
iscover
Replacement parts have been 3D printed on-base for British combat vehicles and completed in days rather than months with Babcock International’s additive manufacturing capabilities.
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
This is the vision that comes to mind as Babcock International engineers supplied the first 3D metal printed parts for the British Army’s active armoured fleets earlier this month.
The steel periscope system components are believed to be the first made in this way by any supplier to the UK Ministry of Defence, before being fitted to Titan and Trojan combat engineering vehicles on 13 January.
Brigadier Phil Prosser, CBE, Assistant Chief of Staff for Equipment, HQ Field Army, said technological advances have unlocked a new pathway to manufacture certified parts.
“The fitting of this additively manufactured part represents a key milestone for Defence and the Army,” he said.
“Additive has disrupted industry manufacturing processes and created an agile alternative to traditional mass manufacture.
“My role in the Field Army is to deliver safe, supported, available and ready equipment to meet Field Army current and future demand to operate, fight and win wars on land.
“This ability to rapidly manufacture parts will allow our equipment to rapidly deploy on operations, and to stay in the fight for longer. This is battle-winning activity, and we are committed to this collaboration and will continue to learn at this impressive pace.”
Babcock International Group chief executive, land, Tom Newman said the new technology provides different approaches for at home or vehicles deployed on operations.
“If a component is required and cannot be sourced, we can now find a way to make it,” he said.
“As we look to the future of equipment support, additive manufacturing has significant implications for our customers, and I am delighted Babcock is leading the way in developing this capability.”
An innovation centre focused on additive manufacturing was unveiled in February 2022 under a partnership with Plymouth Science Park.
Babcock’s chief technology officer, Dr Richard Drake, said printing parts can also ensure companies that need to manufacture at scale can do so in a more sustainable way, using only materials at the point of need.
“This marks a major milestone in finding solutions for obsolete parts and in tackling resilience in the supply chain,” Dr Drake said.
“(These are) some of the biggest challenges engineering and manufacturing businesses like ours are facing. We’re using disruptive technologies to address that.
“For us, this is part of a growing investment program around advanced and additive manufacturing, which we can now progress to other areas of our business.
“We won’t stop here. We are now working towards a future where the additive techniques and processes we are putting into place now will be readily available across any part of the Ministry of Defence we support.”
Babcock manages more than 50,000 vehicles for the British Army including quad bikes, generators, main battle tanks and a range of weapons from pistols to in-direct artillery.
