Upgrading Readiness: Successes and Improvements of the Mobile Parts Hopital 2005-01-0592

The Mobile Parts Hospital (MPH) helps the Army with logistical backups in maintaining sustainment and readiness at the battlefield front. Now going into its third phase of the program and scheduled to be transitioned to a Program Manager (PM), the MPH has proven its ability to build parts in a mobile rapid manufacturing environment. This paper will outline the progress of the Lathe Manufacturing Module (LMM) and it's successes in deployment to Kuwait and advances with the Laser Engineered Net-Shaping™ (LENS®) technology and the ability to rapidly build near net shape parts from powdered metal in a mobile environment. The LENS® has been upgraded for increased performance in build speed and advances in near net-shaping of parts. Increased laser power and newly added equipment effects on build profile and deposited material will be discussed, in addition to lessons learned from the current prototype LMM to advances & developments in future changes made to the LMM modules for deployment.