A new U.S. Army initiative enables field commanders to approve 3D printed parts for faster frontline repairs. Our friends over at BreakingDefense reported U.S. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll stating: “We’re basically saying, ‘Hey colonel, hey general, you have to make the decision. If a door handle is broken on an ISV, you need to get it into the field. If you think that [3D printed] replacement door handle is sufficient, send it out." The military is leaning hard on implementing its recent right-to-repair program announced in May.

Formlabs, best known for its pro-grade resin and SLS 3D printers, is jumping into the increasingly crowded print-on-demand arena. Form Now, its new online service (launching soon) promises to cater to everyone from “garage hobbyist” to “additive expert” with low prices. For now, it’s limited to the U.S. The service is strictly Formlabs gear and materials — which makes sense, since nobody launches a service just to hype the other guy’s printer. Whether its a network of providers or a Formlabs factory is still unknown.

While seeming to defy the basic physics of how propellers work, this conceptual render by Enki Marine indicates the internal blade structure that could be used to lighten the weight and reduce material cost in 3D printed maritime propellers. It's part of the D.E.E.P project—short for Digitally Enabled Efficient Propeller—to build the world’s first 3D printed, digitally monitored ship propeller that can track its own performance at sea. The project will test multiple AM processes against traditional casting to establish an AM classification in the maritime sector.

We reported on the update for 2.9.3 hitting beta just two weeks ago, but things don't stand still in Prusaland. The stable release is now live and brings with it the "consistent surface" change to cooling strategy – a smart adaptation that prioritizes slowing down interior features like infill before forcing a slowdown of the outer layer. In short, it should give better looking prints. Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux directly from the Prusa research website.

We see our fair share of 3D printing hardware coming through our lab, but what are you using? Over the last few (and next many) weekends we'll be unpicking this knot of preferences to see which hardware, materials and mediums you are using the most. This week's question is a simple one, with what I suspect will be a clear frontrunner.

Hitachi, the Japanese multinational manufacturer, opened its $100M carbon-neutral railcar factory in Hagerstown, Md., this week that features in-house spare-part and tool-making capacity using Roboze industrial FDM 3D printers. The Roboze Argo 500 will supply the plant with parts in Ultem and carbon-fiber PEEK to replace traditionally machined metal parts. Hitachi Rail will deliver several fleets of railcars from the new digital factory, including over 600 railcars for Washington D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia.