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July 19, 2024
Sandia Laboratories Develops New Manufacturing Process for Weapon Systems Electronic Connectors
Sandia National Laboratories based in Albuquerque will develop new manufacturing techniques for the rapid production of electronic connectors for weapon systems. This is the main objective of the lab’s new Rapid Development Connectors program. This 5-year project is funded by the National Nuclear Security Administration. The funding will go towards building a team of specialists and developing a lab area both of which will be instrumental in developing the capability of manufacturing and delivering functional connectors in less than four weeks. More specifically the program’s overall goal is to rapidly provide production-representative development hardware to customers while working in parallel with commercial suppliers. Usually, obtaining custom hardware from external companies can take up to a year or longer. But by delivering hardware sooner using in house techniques and personnel, programs are significantly accelerated and overall program risks are reduced. While working on the program researchers sparked new ideas which led to the combination of 3D printing and injection molding technology to manufacture low-volume production parts. Using 3D printed molds for injection molding, in place of traditional machined metal molds, enabled quicker turnaround connector fabrication with more design iterations. Learn more about this topic here.