Additive manufacturing and obsolescence management in the defence context

Foreword The concept of obsolescence in the industrial sector has many facets that can be summarised in the general definition provided by the International Institute for Obsolescence Management (IIOM): obsolescence is the unavailability of parts, or services, that were previously available (IIOM 2015). The need to understand, plan and mitigate obsolescence (i.e. obsolescence management) is particularly relevant in the defence sector where traditional long lead times are combined with expected life-cycles in the order of decades. In this context, the improvement of additive manufacturing (AM) techniques has generated a lot of interest within the industrial sector, as well as in the end users’ community, as a potential powerful new tool for treating some aspects of obsolescence. By building up objects layer-by-layer using three-dimensional printing techniques, AM offers the exciting potential to create articles of novel shapes and properties that in many cases could not be achieved through traditional manufacturing processes. Is the challenge of sourcing spare parts about to become history? The answer is “perhaps”. Defence institutions are already engaging in research to support the adoption of AM in equipment support processes. Given