STL Quote for Metal 3-D Printing in Mobile Parts Hospital

Abstract

A mobile parts hospital (MPH) has the capability to produce replacement parts for equipment in the field at or near the point-of-need. MPH enables rapid repair and return-to-service of disabled components of the equipment and addresses the military priority of weapon system readiness. In the 3D printing process of an MPH system, the field management operator receives an STL file of the required build part from the satellite network communication. Some unknown geometric defects and irregular geometric features on an STL model, however, can possibly turn out to be a failure on metal part fabrication after build, and there is not enough time to verify the build part by defining and analyzing some irregular features before metal 3D printing process to field management operator. This study proposes a methodical approach for offering specialized preliminarily diagnosed STL information and its information exchange system for limited situations in MPH.