U.S. Army scientists may be on the brink of a pioneering additive-manufacturing technology to help soldiers quickly swap out broken plastic components with durable replacement parts from 3D printing.

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In the past, troops either have lugged replacement parts around or ordered them from warehouses thousands of miles away, only to wait weeks for them to arrive. But with dual-polymer parts from 3D printing — developed by scientists at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory, or ARL — soldiers could be a few clicks away from swapping out broken pieces and heading back to the fight within hours.

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“We’re crossing a threshold where low-cost , easy-to-operate and maintain printers will be proliferated on the battlefield — and able to produce engineering parts of […]

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