Automation Alley, the Troy-based technology organization, announced a federal task order valued at $7.5 million, including a base award and an option, to develop secure 3D-printing methods for U.S. Army supply chains.
The organization announced the Phase I award Oct. 15. Its announcement did not disclose the separate base and option amounts.
The work falls under the Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment program through a contract held by the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining, according to DBusiness. NCDMM, which manages America Makes, will serve as prime contractor.
Automation Alley will design and test a system for securely sending manufacturing instructions to 3D printers at multiple locations while protecting intellectual property.
The organization calls the approach “streaming manufacturing,” comparing it to licensing and streaming digital media, but for producing physical parts. The work is part of Project DIAMOnD.
Phase I includes developing encrypted workflows aligned with CMMC and NIST cybersecurity standards, evaluating polymer and metal weapon-system components for 3D printing, and tracking manufacturing quality.
Markforged and Fraunhofer USA will provide technical expertise as project partners.
Automation Alley says the effort addresses long waits, disrupted supply chains and limited domestic production capacity for older defense components.
Tom Kelly, the organization’s executive director and CEO, said the project will demonstrate that “secure distributed additive manufacturing is not just possible — it is ready.”
That remains a goal of the first phase: testing whether protected digital instructions can move securely through a distributed manufacturing network and produce parts with documented quality.
