Firestorm Labs uses 3D printing in a very different way.
The startup is not a 3D print company, as its primary mission is to produce military drones. Currently, they have one model available, the Tempest, and another on the way (El Niño).
What do they have to do with 3D printing? It turns out their drones are primarily 3D printed. While that isn’t too surprising, what is surprising is how the company has leveraged 3D print technology into a new type of product: xCell.
The xCell is a 2X shipping container manufacturing system that can not only produce spare parts for the Tempest but also can manufacture them — in the field. The xCell contains all the manufacturing equipment to print, finish, and assemble the parts for the unmanned aircraft.
According to a report on Defence Blog, the company recently demonstrated the capabilities of xCell at a military event. At the event, the xCell was able to produce three complete Tempest systems for use by participants. It also was able to repair a crashed Tempest by producing the required parts on-site and repairing the vehicle.
Most interestingly, the xCell was also able to produce ground sensor parts for another project unrelated to the Tempest. In other words, the xCell is a flexible field-deployed manufacturing platform.
This is an interesting development, as there are relatively few field-deployed 3D print solutions. Two that I know of are SPEE3D’s Expeditionary Manufacturing Unit (EMU) and Craitor’s FieldFab.
https://www.fabbaloo.com/news/spee3d-unveils-emu-a-comprehensive-3d-printing-solution-for-military-field-operations
https://www.fabbaloo.com/news/fieldfab-by-craitor-a-rugged-3d-printer-for-military-and-field-operations
There is a big difference, however. xCell is designed to manufacture a specific product, while the others are general-purpose. In my experience, 3D print solutions that are specialized tend to be more successful because the customer knows what they want to do and therefore are more likely to purchase.
Firestorm Labs seems to have an intriguing product that could be very useful in these interesting times.
Via Firestorm and Defence Blog
