3YOURMIND and Phillips Corp. Join US Navy's RIMPAC Distributed Manufacturing Experiment
3YOURMIND is partnering with Phillips Corp. in a US Navy experiment focused on distributed manufacturing during the upcoming Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise.
Additive manufacturing software provider 3YOURMIND will collaborate with Phillips Corp. in a distributed manufacturing experiment as part of the US Navy's biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise, scheduled from July 24-31 in the Hawaiian Islands. This initiative is being led by the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), a key institution for advanced manufacturing research and development within the US military.
The experiment aims to evaluate the effectiveness of implementing distributed production directly on an operational warship. The USS Essex, a vessel with prior experience in testing metal 3D printing aboard a US Navy ship, will serve as the testing platform for this endeavor. 3YOURMIND's role is to enable NPS to assess the execution of distributed manufacturing capabilities on a deployed vessel.
This collaboration builds on a long-standing relationship between 3YOURMIND and Phillips Corp., which has included work on various US military contracts. Previous projects involved reverse engineering tank parts to create digital inventories for the US Army and integrating 3YOURMIND's Rapid Part Identifier (RPI) with the US Marines' Digital Manufacturing Data Vault (DMDV). The RIMPAC exercise marks the third US military event in as many months where the two companies have partnered, following their participation in the Joint Inter-agency Field Experimentation (JIFX) in May and Valiant Shield in June.
William Cuervo, president of 3YOURMIND's North American operations, stated that establishing a digitized manufacturing network is an enterprise-level challenge requiring the integration of fragmented people and assets, with solutions tailored for military needs. Chris Curran, program manager at NPS's CAMRE program, emphasized the importance of operationalizing advanced manufacturing for the fleet, highlighting the necessity of precise command and control over the digital supply chain to ensure units receive the correct files at the right time for on-demand part production.
This experiment highlights the growing military interest in distributed and expeditionary manufacturing. By integrating 3YOURMIND's software with Phillips' hybrid DED/milling system on an operational vessel, the US Navy is testing the creation of a digitized supply chain capable of producing parts anywhere, anytime. This is crucial for enhancing readiness and reducing logistical burdens in remote or contested environments, aligning with broader additive manufacturing goals for resilience and operational flexibility.
Edited by the news editor with AI from the original report — please refer to the original source.