Air Force parts shop at JBER seeks quotes for a 3D printer before funding is in hand

The Air Force shop at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson that machines and welds replacement parts for F-22 fighters and other equipment is shopping for a 3D printer.

Air Force contracting officers at the base are taking quotes until 2 pm Monday for a printer system for the 3rd Maintenance Squadron's metals technology section. The purchase would include the printer, supplies to run it, installation and training for the shop's airmen. Delivery is due within 90 days of an award.

The notice says the money to buy the printer isn't available yet and that the Air Force could cancel without paying bidders for the cost of preparing a quote. That is standard wording in federal contracting rules, used when an agency lines up a purchase before the funds to pay for it are in hand. The federal fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

The metals technology shop is where the base turns when the supply system can't deliver a part in time. Its airmen machine brackets, fasteners and other parts from blocks of metal and weld repairs for aircraft and ground equipment, so broken gear doesn't have to be shipped to a depot or wait on a new order, according to a 2014 profile by JBER's public affairs office. "We like to say we're the last line of maintenance defense," one of the shop's machinists said then.

The shop already works from computer designs. Its machinists draw parts in design software and cut them on computer-controlled mills, removing metal until the part is left. A 3D printer works the other way, building a part up layer by layer from a digital model.

The Air Force has been steering its metals technology shops toward 3D printing. The Air Force office that supports those shops says they exist to make parts on demand when the supply system comes up short, and that it is adding 3D printing to their work while keeping traditional mills and lathes in use.