Drone boat hull printed using the AMBIT XTRUDE in a CNC machine.
(l-r): CAMRE team members Forest Shaner and Ethan Brown were trained by Dr. Jones on the hybrid CNC enhanced with polymer extrusion capability. The AMBIT XTRUDE head, which was used with the Haas CNC at CAMRE for this application, can be installed in most floor-standing CNC machines.
The AMBIT XTRUDE spindle-powered 3D printing head prints a polymer composite industrial separator component inside of a CNC machine. Areas of this part will be machined in the same set-up.
The AMBIT XTRUDE, mounted in a CNC spindle, printed these tubular parts from pellet feedstock made of ABS with carbon fiber reinforcement. The parts weighed 23 lbs. and were printed in 2 hours and 44 minutes. These parts were assembled into a structure 8.2' high.
Hybrid Manufacturing Technologies Global (HMT) was recently part of a collaboration at the Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing Research and Education (CAMRE) Advanced Manufacturing Facility at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS). HMT's AMBIT XTRUDE technology contributed to Trident Warrior 2025, a military technology exercise hosted by CAMRE, FLEETWERX, and partner organizations.
CAMRE is a program dedicated to advancing and integrating advanced manufacturing technologies-specifically additive manufacturing (AM/3D printing)-for U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and joint force applications. CAMRE's primary goal is to take research and education in advanced manufacturing and transition it into practical, real-world capabilities.
The collaboration featured HMT's patented AMBIT XTRUDE polymer composite 3D printing system, which was integrated with a CNC machine via the spindle, enabling AM and milling on the same machine. The AMBIT XTRUDE's main benefit, in addition to speed, is its ease of use and seamless integration method, HMT reported.
At the end of day one, the integration was complete for an existing Navy-owned CNC machine and ready to print drone boat hulls at speeds faster than 1 per hour. After just a few hours of training, several service members were already proving effective at production.
The AMBIT XTRUDE is a pellet-fed polymer composite material extrusion system that can be added to CNC machines and offers up to a 2,000-fold increase in volumetric deposition rates over typical desktop polymer extrusion printers, the company reported. This enables the rapid production of meter-scale near net parts, tooling, jigs, and fixtures. These parts can then be finished using the milling capability of the same machine. Once integrated into a CNC machine, the changeover between 3D printing and machining is just minutes.
Dr. Jason Jones of HMT was present to oversee the integration and to provide his expertise at the CAMRE Advanced Manufacturing Facility at the Naval Postgraduate School.
"The dual purposing of CNC equipment for AM and milling gives ease of use with unrivalled cost and space effectiveness-key ingredients for success in this naval exercise," said Jones. "Results after only one day of use included the training of multiple military personnel and output parts, including a drone boat hull segment and a customized carrying case insert for protecting a critical metal part."
"As with every advanced manufacturing exercise, the time allotted for learning new equipment is extremely compressed," said Lt. Col Michael Radigan with the Marine Innovation Unit that supported CAMRE's exercise in collaboration with FLEETWERX. "Being able to deliver an additional polymer capability to an existing machine and control panel that our service members and students know well decreases the time required to deliver urgent readiness solutions."
For more information contact:
Hybrid Manufacturing Technologies
1600 Corporate Drive, Ste. 111
McKinney, TX 75069
214-530-2334
www.hybrid-am.com
Naval Postgraduate School
1 University Circle
Monterey, CA 93943
www.nps.edu
FLEETWERX
www.fleetwerx.com