U.S. Military Better Visualizes Unfamiliar Settings With 3D Printing

Both in peace and times of conflict, successful military operations require advance intelligence on the lay of the land. This intelligence minimizes surprises and enables troops to move more swiftly and surely to seize their objectives.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is a leader in providing this information by mapping cities, mountainous areas and other complex terrain around the world in support of military and civil operations. Carrying out the mission are select members of the Corps, an agency made up of approximately 34,600 civilian and 650 military members, including biologists, engineers, geologists, hydrologists and natural resource managers.

The Army Corps’ mapping team played a key role in the 2005 Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, helping chart New Orleans as soldiers and civil authorities saved lives and property. The dynamic situation – changing floodwater levels, hospital statuses, and hot spots – required a constant re-mapping of the terrain, including buildings, water and other natural features.

Challenge: Quickly Fabricating 3D Maps

A key part of this work on Katrina was making detailed 3D landscape models, which are especially helpful for troops and police. 3D models provide much more information than a 2D map that flattens important features and provides few cues about elevation. The traditional method for creating 3D landscape models is “sand tables,” manually assembled models, or other approaches that take weeks or more to create, not to mention being cumbersome and breakable. The urgency of the Katrina disaster didn’t allow the luxury of waiting. Minutes equaled lives.

Solution: 3D Printing 

The Army Corps’ U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) found a way to address the problem, producing durable 3D models quickly, easily and inexpensively. The ERDC, the 2005 Army Research Laboratory of the Year, elected to print 3D landscape models from digital geospatial information using a Z Corporation 3D Printer.

A 3D printer is an output device for 3D geospatial data in the same way that a 2D printer is an output device for word-processing software. The primary difference is that a 3D printer outputs three-dimensional models. The technology cuts weeks of labor from the construction of topographic models, and it displays details that other technologies cannot. The Z Corp. 3D printer’s unsurpassed color capability accurately distinguishes land, water, buildings and other terrain features. This is vital for understanding and impact.

“When you look at a topographic feature on the ground, you see it differently than you do when looking at the contour lines on a map that depict the feature,” said retired Chief Warrant Officer 5 Jeffrey Popp of the U.S. EDRC’s Topographic Engineering Center. “A 3D model allows you to visualize the terrain without actually being there.”

The Z Corp. 3D printer creates detailed 3D color models in as little as two hours. It produces models that are lightweight, easily transportable and durable enough for repeated use in operational environments. The highly detailed models increase users’ understanding of complex geospatial features and are of particular value in developed areas.

Z Corp. 3D printers employ a powder-binder technology, invented at and patented by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to create 3D maps or product models directly from digital data. First, the machine spreads a thin layer of powder. Second, an ink-jet print head prints a binder in the cross-section of the object being created. Next, the build piston drops down, making room for the next layer, and the process is repeated. Once the map is finished, it is surrounded and supported by loose powder, which is then brushed away from the finished product.

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