3D printing technology has found widespread application in the production of military equipment parts and components.

Recently, 3D printing technology has witnessed rapid advancement and integration with traditional manufacturing techniques, eliminating mold production altogether to ensure high casting quality, reduce production cycle time and costs and shorten production cycle times.

Military enterprises engage in research and development, single prototype production, small to medium batch production, multiple species war production, as well as traditional mold and part production from cost and cycle considerations - which makes meeting development needs difficult with traditional molds, high prices, inefficiency and long lead times. 3D printing technology offers a solution to traditional molds' high prices, inefficiency and long lead times problems.

At this stage in its development, 3D printing technology is most often used for product design, design verification, functional verification, proto modeling and production of prototypes. Different 3D printing techniques are utilized quickly to produce plastic and metal parts to meet the research phase needs. Product design requires precise proportioning, color matching and other details that may not appear accurately on computer displays. With 3D printing SLA technology in accordance with product requirements for high strength plastic printing (the entire printing process usually only takes several hours or 1-2 working days), after the printed parts have been assembled by spray painting or baking processes or any other means needed for assembly, you can get an end product design which can be disassembled and assembled again at will.

Functional verification and bidding for prototype production requires multiple components made using traditional molds; however, these processes are costly and time consuming in terms of production cost and time consumption. With 3D printing SLS, SLA, SLM and 3DP technology being utilized directly or indirectly for producing plastic and metal prototype parts directly or indirectly for prototypes within 10-15 working days this becomes much more feasible and cost effective.

3D printing technology has quickly become the go-to technology for batch production of complex structural parts in small to medium batches with high mold costs, pre-mold development for complex internal cavities, pre-mold development of complex molds and other production scenarios. Combining military production characteristics and 3D printing technology into the batch production stage, its advantages become very evident. Particularly noticeable for complex structural parts and mold cost high parts production; both time and cost advantages become even greater. As material shrinkage, deformation and molding process rationality fluctuate unpredictabley during early development stages of molds, mold development often requires several times the size of adjustments compared with anticipated, increasing development cost while making production time difficult to estimate.

Thus, 3D printing technology can help produce molds more efficiently and save time through mold production of sand molds or other prints out, which can then be directly molded after pouring, saving both time and cost of mold development. Mold testing services exist as well to determine optimal mold size, anti-deformation capability, reasonable molding process steps etc. In this way not only do small batch parts reach production quicker and cheaper but mold development time will also be reduced to approximately 30 working days with initial parts arriving 20 days after molding start - larger quantities following 45 working days of development time!

Industrial-grade 3D printing and fusion supporting technologies used by military enterprises for scientific research and batch production offer undoubtedly superior methods of production, as it solves long manufacturing cycles, expensive mold costs, patch welding issues, internal defects requiring frequent repair efforts as well as any number of other manufacturing issues that exist today. With its use coming single piece production/small batch/complex component parts production as well as obvious advantages.

Industrial 3D printing makes use of fusion supporting technology, altering the pure mold production model and shifting product designers away from thinking "first manufacturing then function", toward developing around "first function then manufacturing", in accordance with a new development model.

Industrial 3D printing and fusion supporting technology allows designers to fully realize their imagination, facilitates rationalizing structures while simultaneously integrating functionalities for lightweight development, expedites development timeframes and production schedules, as well as rapid product production rates. Exploring and popularizing industrial-level 3D printing technology in military enterprises represented by weapons is of great significance.