Case Study: Sheppard Air Force Base achieves $800,000 in cost avoidance and three years of development-time savings with Proto3000

FDM Direct Digital Manufacturing Saves $800,000 And Three Years Development Time Over Four-year Period

Sheppard Air Force Base’s Trainer Development Flight (TDF) designs and manufactures trainers and training aids for the Air Force and DoD, but faced long lead times and high costs from conventional, low-volume production methods. To overcome this, Sheppard adopted Proto3000’s FDM direct digital manufacturing solution (Fortus-style FDM additive fabrication machines) to produce durable, detailed replica parts and trainers more quickly and with less waste.

Proto3000 implemented a centralized FDM workflow with four machines and lean processes, enabling reverse engineering and batch production of UAV replicas and components. Using Proto3000’s FDM, an antenna that would have taken an outsourced shop up to 20 days was produced in 2 days with only 15–20 minutes of labor (ROI > $12,000); overall results include an estimated $800,000 in cost avoidance and three years of time savings over a four-year period, accelerated ROI on machine purchases (18 and 9 months), and cumulative savings reported at $3.8 million to date with projected 10–15-year savings of over $15 million.

Sheppard Air Force Base

Mitchell Weatherly

Chief, Trainer Development Flight