American shipbuilder Austal USA has bought an ARCEMY Small Version steel 3D printer from Australia’s AML3D in a deal value roughly AU$1.2 million (USD$0.78 million).
AML3D’s proprietary Wire Additive Manufacturing (WAM) expertise powers the system, which will probably be put in on the U.S. Navy’s Additive Manufacturing Heart of Excellence (AM CoE). Austal USA, a subsidiary of the Australian protection prime Austal, operates the AM CoE on the Institute for Superior Studying and Analysis (IALR) campus in Danville, Virginia.
The brand new 3D printer will probably be used alongside AML3D’s large-format ARCEMY ‘X-Version 6700’, which turned totally operational on the AM CoE in April 2024. It is going to be mounted in a 20-foot delivery container, enhancing deployability and lowering discipline service set up instances from 2-3 weeks to only 2-3 days.
Engineers and researchers will use AML3D’s 3D printer to speed up expertise growth and conduct small half manufacturing. The ARCEMY Small can even function a precursor to a deployable 3D printer, which may very well be used to provide components on the level of want throughout the U.S. navy.
Austal USA is scheduled to obtain its ARCEMY Small in January 2026. The fee will happen in phases, with 50% paid upfront and the remaining steadiness due upon supply, testing, and commissioning.
“It is vitally thrilling to be persevering with constructing our relationship with Austal USA and our presence on the U.S. Navy’s Additive Manufacturing Heart of Excellence. Our ARCEMY Small system, pre-installed in a delivery container, gives the ability with all the advantages of high-quality small half manufacturing, with massively lowered lead instances,” commented Pete Goumas, President & CEO of AML3D USA Inc.
“Simply as importantly it demonstrates how transportable ARCEMY techniques might be and opens up one other probably important market alternative – totally ahead, level of want, deployable techniques that meet U.S. navy specs,” Goumas added.
AML3D and Austal USA bolster the protection industrial base with AM
AML3D’s ARCEMY Small Version is a compact steel 3D printer with a 4.8 x 4.8 x 2.0 meter footprint, making it appropriate for many manufacturing unit and store ground workspaces.
Marketed as an entry-level WAM system, it’s designed to provide components weighing as much as 750 kilograms. In keeping with AML3D, the 3D printer’s flexibility will enable Austal USA to simply redeploy it because the agency grows and reconfigures its additive manufacturing operations on the AM CoE.
Alabama-based Austal is one in all 4 major corporations that instantly construct and keep U.S. Navy vessels. The ship producer is more and more adopting additive manufacturing to cut back lead instances and overcome procurement challenges within the U.S. protection industrial base.
In a current interview with 3D Printing Business, Dr. Scott Kasen, Director of Superior Applied sciences at Austal USA, revealed that his firm is 3D printing mission-critical elements spanning fittings, brackets, valve our bodies, and pumps. He added that Austal is trying to increase its AM operations into new end-use components as its operations mature.
AML3D additionally sees additive manufacturing as a key answer to overcoming challenges within the protection provide chain. The 3D printer OEM is working to turn out to be a number one level of want, additive manufacturing answer for the U.S. Division of Protection via its ‘Scale-Up’ technique.
This initiative has seen the agency safe quite a few contracts with America’s navy. Earlier this month, AML3D acquired a Letter of Intent from the U.S. Navy to increase 3D printing throughout America’s Maritime Industrial Base. The doc outlines the procurement of roughly 1,600 3D printed elements yearly by 2030. It additionally revealed plans to put in as much as 100 large-format 3D printers, with output anticipated to succeed in 400 components in FY 2026.
Elsewhere, the corporate delivered 3D printed prototype submarine tailpiece elements for the U.S. Navy’s Virginia-class nuclear submarine program. The Copper-Nickel components, valued at roughly A$156,000, have been manufactured as a part of the trilateral AUKUS partnership between the U.S., UK, and Australia.
AML3D’s U.S. enlargement is additional mirrored in its monetary efficiency. In Q3 2025, the corporate achieved break-even working money circulation, pushed by A$2.5 million in buyer receipts and powerful progress within the U.S. market. As of March 31, 2025, AML3D held A$31.4 million in money reserves. This capital will fund the corporate’s subsequent progress part, together with a AU$12 million plan to scale U.S. manufacturing and a AU$5 million funding to enter the European market.
“It was clear throughout my current go to to the U.S. that we have now solely simply begun to unlock the massive alternative for AML3D’s superior manufacturing expertise to assist the U.S. navy and its wider provide chain,” defined AML3D CEO Sean Ebert.
In keeping with Ebert, “The chance to deploy this extremely versatile, ARCEMY Small pre-mounted answer additional broadens the ARCEMY use circumstances for the U.S. navy and business sectors in addition to different globally vital protection and non-defense markets such because the UK and Australia.”
3D printing beneficial properties floor in U.S. protection sector
Additive manufacturing is enjoying an more and more vital function in U.S. protection manufacturing. The DoD’s $1 trillion FY 2026 price range requests $3.3 billion throughout 16 tasks that contain additive manufacturing. The price range allocates $58.4 million for DARPA’s Additive Manufacturing of MicrosystEms (AMEE) and OSD’s Additive Manufacturing Innovation packages, which explicitly deal with 3D printing expertise. In response, Alexander Steeb, Senior Operations Director at America Makes, advised 3D Printing Business that the U.S. navy is “doubling down on additive.”
Final month, composite 3D printing firm Steady Composites (CCI) was awarded a multi-year, multi-million-dollar contract from the U.S. Air Drive. By way of the settlement, the Idaho-based firm will advance the event of high-performance composite supplies utilizing its proprietary Steady Fiber 3D (CF3D) expertise.
In different information, American navy drone producer Firestorm Labs just lately raised $47 million in a Collection A funding spherical led by U.S. enterprise capital agency New Enterprise Associates (NEA).
Traders included Lockheed Martin Ventures, Decisive Level, Washington Harbour Companions, Booz Allen Ventures. It additionally contains $12 million in enterprise debt from U.S.-based monetary agency J.P. Morgan. The capital will probably be used to scale Firestorm’s drone 3D printing platform by increasing the corporate’s engineering workforce, opening a bigger manufacturing facility, and strengthening partnerships.
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Featured picture reveals the AML3D ARCEMY Small Version 3D printer. Picture by way of AML3D.
