The Grainger College of Engineering has partnered with the Department of Defense to research 3D printing applications for the engineering of large metal military vehicle parts.
The $9 million project, $8.15 million of which is provided by the DOD, is aimed at researching the capabilities of additive manufacturing, a type of 3D printing.
Announced in May 2025, the partnership will be led by Bill King, Ralph A. Andersen endowed chair and professor in Engineering and Medicine.
King declined to be interviewed but stated that “the project is underway, and we are developing our laboratory capabilities for large metal additive manufacturing.” He added that more announcements about the center are planned for later this year.
Among the largest costs stipulated in the contract between the DOD and the University — which The Daily Illini obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request — are two machines that cost around $1.2 million and $2.5 million.
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Although additive manufacturing has been increasingly incorporated into defense and non-defense engineering, its viability for larger metal parts at sizes of 3 feet or more is less known, according to an announcement for the partnership.
The cost share that the University will contribute is $905,000 for the actual construction of the facility, which will be located in the University’s Research Park and will house two metal 3D printers.
Federico Sciammarella, executive director of the Illinois Manufacturing Institute — which will oversee the project — said in an interview that the center has been in planning for a “year or two.”
Although the center will be supported heavily by the DOD, Sciammarella said that the heavy metals research will eventually span areas beyond just military ground vehicles, including aerospace and automobile projects.
The center will seek to research metal 3D printing processes that can then be scaled up for larger production settings, according to Sciammarella.
Outgoing Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., praised the project, according to the announcement.
Durbin is quoted as saying that, by supporting large metal additive manufacturing research in collaboration with Rock Island Arsenal — a U.S. Army metal manufacturing facility located in the Quad Cities, a historic defense manufacturing region — the project will “reduce U.S. dependence on foreign manufacturing for metals, contribute more resilient ground vehicles for the Army in the future and create jobs for Illinoisans.”
The Pentagon has been trying to invest more in additive manufacturing and incorporate it into the military logistics supply chain in recent years, in order to build what it has called a “more lethal and ready force.”
The latest U.S. military budget requested $3.3 billion for projects involving additive manufacturing, an 83% year-over-year increase from the previous budget.
John Borrego, an additive manufacturing expert, executive at Machina Labs and commentator whose work history includes stints at SpaceX and Los Alamos National Laboratory, says that the push toward 3D printing is part of building a more nimble supply chain for forward deployment.
“If you’re in contested areas and you have no supply chain, there are … possibilities of being able to deploy these types of additive factories to these forward deployed bases to repair or replace or build components that are needed for the warfighter,” Borrego said in an interview with The DI.
He added that machinists wouldn’t have to be hired by the military, as files and information could be sent to a military base which could then print the parts remotely.
Borrego says 3D printing critical parts, rather than welding and engineering parts manually, can sometimes lead to issues, especially in military vehicles where strength of armor and weight are critical.
“Because you’re melting metal, there is chances of microfissures and cracks forming,” Borrego said. “In some cases, it’s not a problem, but in cases where weight is critical, that’s a high risk.”
In some cases, parts that shouldn’t be 3D printed are anyway, according to Borrego.
He also stated that all the funding for additive manufacturing by the military stems partly from efforts by investors.
“I think a lot of people within the industry are kind of forcing that narrative to be able to leverage their capital that they invested in 3D printing, to use it as a one solution for all,” Borrego said.
Sciammarella says the center will be working on addressing such issues.
“That’s why the government comes to experts like Dr. King and other faculty here … so that we aren’t putting people in harm’s way,” Sciammarella said.
Criticism
Students for Justice in Palestine UIUC, a student group that had its status as a RSO revoked by the University last year, has called the partnership an example of how defense research at the University is being used to fuel “the war machine.”
The group, which did not respond to multiple requests by The DI for comment, has placed banners on campus and organized a protest in October 2025 to condemn the partnership.
SJP UIUC wrote on Instagram that it is “channeling this pressure through an ongoing campaign urging faculty to refuse participation in weapons development, war profiteering, and the ongoing genocide of Palestinians.”
In a written statement, Patrick Wade, the University’s director of executive communications and issues management, stated that the University’s DOD projects “typically focus on basic, science-based research related to materials, energy, health, or information technologies and often have practical applications beyond national security and defense.”
Wade wrote that work on advanced manufacturing “has practical applications beyond this specific project,” and that the project in question “does not support weapons.”
Although there is no mention of weapons engineering within the proprietary agreement between the University and DOD, according to a stipulation in the contract, the University must allow the DOD access to “directory information pertaining to students” for military recruiting purposes.
