{"id":1753,"date":"2012-11-12T15:43:00","date_gmt":"2012-11-12T15:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/archives\/1753-3d-printing-on-the-front-line.html"},"modified":"2017-04-17T12:48:50","modified_gmt":"2017-04-17T16:48:50","slug":"3d-printing-on-the-front-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/3d-printing-on-the-front-line","title":{"rendered":"3D Printing on the Front Line"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\nThe US Army is taking 3D printing to the front lines with 20ft shipping containers fitted with 3D printers, CNC machines and other fabrication equipment so that they can repair and improvise new parts in the field, speeding up innovation. Each Expeditionary Lab costs a hefty $2.8 million with&nbsp;Exponent Inc.&nbsp;awarded a $9.7 million three year contract worth of expeditionary lab support.<\/p>\n<p><!-- s9ymdb:29881 --><a href=\"http:\/\/www.military.com\/daily-news\/2012\/08\/17\/mobile-labs-build-on-the-spot-combat-solutions.html?comp=1198882887570&amp;rank=1\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"serendipity_image_center\" width=\"428\" height=\"285\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/ref-expeditionary-lab-428.jpg\" alt=\"3D Printing Army\"><\/a> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;\">\n<p class=\"p1\"><em>Soldiers no longer have to wait to bring ideas back to scientists and engineers back in the states. The REF has brought the experts to the soldiers in combat.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>These mobile labs represent the REF&#8217;s future as its director, Col. Peter Newell, wanted to figure out a way to help the Army<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The US Army is taking 3D printing to the front lines with 20ft shipping containers fitted with 3D printers, CNC&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":13668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[510],"tags":[944],"class_list":["post-1753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-3d-printing-industry","tag-whats-hot"],"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/ref-expeditionary-lab-428.jpg","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.9 (Yoast SEO v23.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>3D Printing on the Front Line - Shapeways Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The US Army is taking 3D printing to the front lines with 20ft shipping containers fitted with 3D printers, CNC machines and other fabrication equipment\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/3d-printing-on-the-front-line\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Duann\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/3d-printing-on-the-front-line#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/3d-printing-on-the-front-line\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Duann\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prodshapeblog.wpenginepowered.com\/#\/schema\/person\/848d6ff12be3ccf4dc1dcd672000dc28\"},\"headline\":\"3D Printing on the Front Line\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-11-12T15:43:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-04-17T16:48:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/3d-printing-on-the-front-line\"},\"wordCount\":122,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prodshapeblog.wpenginepowered.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/3d-printing-on-the-front-line#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/ref-expeditionary-lab-428.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"What's Hot\"],\"articleSection\":[\"3D Printing Industry\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/3d-printing-on-the-front-line#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/3d-printing-on-the-front-line\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/3d-printing-on-the-front-line\",\"name\":\"3D Printing on the Front Line - 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