Within the authorities contracting course of, public sector companies usually situation a letter of intent (LOI) within the lead-up to forging formal offers with particular corporations for future supply of products and/or providers. The agreements aren’t legally binding, however they do present detailed outlines enabling the related stakeholders to start taking any mandatory, preliminary steps in planning their enterprise operations.
The U.S. Navy has simply issued an LOI to the Australian unique tools producer (OEM) of wire additive manufacturing (WAM) techniques, AML3D, indicating the maritime department’s expectation that it’ll considerably ramp up its demand for AML3D’s choices by way of 2030. Over the previous couple of years, 3DPrint.com has regularly coated AML3D’s growing foothold within the U.S. protection market. This progress trajectory contains AML3D’s opening of a expertise middle in Ohio, a growth backed by an $8 million capital funding.
In the LOI that the Navy despatched AML3D, the letter’s creator, Matthew D. Evans, Deputy Program Supervisor for Ships, U.S. Navy, Maritime Industrial Base (MIB), particularly referenced the Ohio facility, in addition to AML3D’s acknowledged intentions to develop right into a second location. Notably, Evans additionally mentions an “ongoing demand examine” that the Navy is endeavor to forecast MIB demand by way of at the least 2030. One discovering from the examine to this point is that the Navy expects to wish at the least 100 new steel 3D printing techniques, though the timeline for this demand stays unspecified.
One other key element from the LOI entails the projected demand progress for elements produced with steel AM that the Navy antipastos over the following a number of years: “We’re all in favour of offering AML3D with a consultant checklist of potential elements that may be produced additively using your tools…These elements, nevertheless, nonetheless must comply with the normal procurement course of by the Shipyards and Shipbuilders. Because the MIB continues to develop into floor ships and in-service help, our preliminary calculations present that when materials interchangeability is achieved (FY26), a minimal of ~400 elements will should be produced additively, which is predicted to ramp as much as ~1,600 elements by FY30.”
That gives a pleasant snapshot of what the Navy at the moment views as a practical tempo for its AM adoption price by way of the tip of this decade: in line with this view, the variety of steel, 3D printed elements that the Navy sources could enhance by 300 p.c between 2027 and 2030. The LOI additionally notes a number of the AM supplies which are in highest demand by the Navy: bronze, nickel, metal, chrome steel, and titanium alloys.
Lower than two weeks previous to this announcement, AML3D had additionally introduced that the corporate had named Frederick J. Stefany, the first-ever Program Supervisor of the MIB, to the AML3D board. Previous to serving in that capability between July 2024 and February 2025, Stefany served for 3 years because the appearing Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Analysis, Growth, and Acquisition. Having a former U.S. protection coverage official in your board has develop into a pattern within the U.S. AM house, a narrative that features the previous Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees, Admiral Mike Mullen, on the board of Nikon Superior Manufacturing.
Thus, whereas AML3D could also be exceptionally profitable in concentrating on the U.S. DIB as a key buyer, the corporate’s actions on this regard actually match into a much wider context. Alongside these traces, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to anticipate that we’ll see extra LOIs like this within the close to future.
Photos courtesy of AML3D.
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