Newport News Shipbuilding on Wednesday gave the Navy a 3D printed metal part for the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier (CVN 75).
Once installed, the carrier will undergo tests for one year.
“We are pleased to have worked so closely with our Navy partners to get to the point where the first 3-D metal part will be installed on an aircraft carrier,” said Charles Southall, vice president of engineering and design at NNS, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries.
Southall said the 3D printing process or additive manufacturing will help revolutionize the naval engineering and shipbuilding fields.
It’s a computer-generated process which creates three dimensional objects using layers of plastic or metal material, in this case, a metal piping assembly.
The metal part acts as a drain by removing water from a steam line when the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is in motion.
It is unclear how much the metal part costs.
“It’s not our practice to share cost and pricing data outside our company,” said Duane Bourne, spokesman for NNS.
The Naval Sea Systems Command approved the decision to use 3D printing to create values, housings and brackets for the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier last year.
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