Amateur Prints Functional Lower Receiver of Gun - DARPA working on additive manufacturing of ground vehicles and planes

Tweet Gun enthusiast “HaveBlue” has documented in a blog post (via the AR15 forums) the process of what appears to be the first test firing of a firearm made with a 3D printer. HaveBlue reportedly used a Stratasys 3D printer to craft the part, assembled it as a .22 pistol and fired more than 200 rounds with it.

Partially 3d printed Gun. Credit: HaveBlue.org

In firearms terminology, the receiver is the part of a firearm that houses the operating parts.

DARPA has been funding the META project (at about $49-75 million per year).

The META effort will also explore the initial design of a next generation ground vehicle by employing a novel, model-based correct-by-construction design capability, a highly-adaptable foundry-style manufacturing capability, and crowd-sourcing methods to demonstrate 5x-10x compression in the timeline necessary to build an infantry fighting vehicle.

DARPA is working on a relatively compact instant foundry that could be placed near front lines and easily fits on military bases or on aircraft carriers.

In 2011, Southampton university printed a UAV plane.

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