Specific Advantages of Direct Manufacturing:

Fabricate OEM Structures and Equipment beyond prototype stage

• Machining Preforms
     Save 80-90% of metal purchase of hogout.
     Save 80% of overall delivery time.
     Eliminate rough machining steps and one step over hogouts.
     Go directly to final machining step.
  
• Less costly than forgings
     Eliminates blocker die series and repeated heat treatments.
     Eliminates shaper dies and heat treatments.
     Cuts 90% of delivery time delays from making dies.
     Eliminates 80-90% of rough machining over forging.
     Go directly to final machining step.
  
• Ideal for meeting rapid response requirements and small lot orders

Facilitate Repair and Refurbishment

• Repair of mis-machined parts in manufacturing
     Additive process can recover high value parts.
  
• Can provide "Parts Now" and in-the-field repairs at remote repair stations
     Adds to greater availability of assets.
     Eliminate storage or platforms awaiting repair parts and delivery.
     Permits quick refurbishment of legacy systems.
     Permits recovery and re-deployment of high value components.
     Minimizes inventories and eliminates large lot re-supply requirements.

Fabricate Hybrid Structures

• Meets future requirements of "Tailored" structures not achievable by legacy forging, casting, or machining of monolithic materials.
• Only additive method able to provide hybrid structures with lugs and bosses without high fault zones associated with castings.
• Ability to vary alloy and chemistry throughout the landscape of a component to vary strength, fatigue performance, toughness etc. throughout a part's geometry.
• Potential weight savings over monolithic structures.
• Create unique part properties.

Competitive Strategies for use of DM

• Increase machine shop yield.
• Reduce machining requirements.
• Reduce shop capital investments for rough machine tooling.
• Faster deliveries of small lot structures.
• Eliminate waiting for dies, molds, and supplier delays.
• Provides competitive pricing negotiation leverage.
• Added advantage in lighter structures with faster delivery over competition.
• Government already using and accepting parts manufactured by additive manufacturing processes.

The DM fabrication sequence
for a 24-inch wide gimbal.