Predictive Maintenance Driving 3D Printing

A long term interest and application area.  You could do a good job of prediction, but had to have a complex array of replacement parts in inventory.   Here, for the right kind of of application, the inventory could be minimized.  Could the parts even be produced to address certain kinds of predictive degradation by altering manufacturing design? 

Army 3D Printing Study Shows Promise for Predictive Maintenance
U.S. Army Research Laboratory
May 19, 2020

A study by researchers at the U.S. Army's Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC) Army Research Laboratory (ARL), the National Institute of Standards and Technology, CCDC Aviation and Missile Center, and Johns Hopkins University detailed a method for monitoring the performance of three-dimensionally (3D)-printed parts. The technique uses sensors to detect and track the wear and tear of 3D-printed maraging steel (known to possess superior strength and toughness without losing ductility), to help forecast degradation or malfunctions that warrant replacement. ARL's Todd C. Henry said the study was as much about understanding the specific performance of a 3D-printed material as it was about understanding the ability to monitor and detect the performance and degradation of 3D-printed materials.