DLA Product Test Center Accelerates Quality Assurance with 3D Printing

The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Weapons Support Product Test Center in Columbus, Ohio, has incorporated additive manufacturing into its quality assurance processes, dramatically cutting down the time needed to produce custom fixtures. Previously, creating these essential tools could take weeks or even months, but the new 3D printing capabilities have reduced this to mere hours, freeing up valuable staff time.

The facility handles approximately 3,000 items annually across its electronics and mechanical labs, operating under a tight 30-day window for each item's clearance. Custom fixtures are a necessity for nearly every component tested. To overcome the bottleneck caused by traditional fixture production, the PTC collaborated with DLA Research and Development (R&D) on the "Tools for Testing" initiative. This program provided the necessary equipment and technical support to implement 3D printing and laser scanning.

The introduction of a Stratasys Fortus 450mc FDM printer and a metrology-grade 3D laser scanner has transformed the process. A fixture that once demanded extensive machining time can now be designed in about an hour and printed in as little as six hours. This has also led to substantial cost savings, with up to ten fixtures now producible for the cost of a single traditional one.

Engineers now have access to a broader range of materials, including thermoplastics like ASA, ABS, PEI, and ABS-ESD7, which is specially formulated for static charge dissipation crucial for sensitive electronics testing. Future plans, funded by DLA R&D, include adding metal powder bed fusion printing capabilities for the mechanical lab by March 2027. This expansion will enable the production of fixtures for high-pressure and tensile load testing, alongside a CT scanner for non-destructive inspection and a smaller prototyping printer.