Sandia CAMINO Cuts Development-Part Lead Time from Months to One Week
Sandia National Laboratories' CAMINO delivered additive-manufactured development parts in one week instead of the four to six months required for machining.
Sandia's Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Innovation supported a Power Sources Technology Group redesign, supplying development parts in one week instead of the four to six months required for machining. It also printed a TPU mechanical surrogate for difficult-to-machine insulation material, reducing an iteration from 12 weeks to 12 hours.
CAMINO is not a production facility; it supports design sprints, prototypes, testing, and design-for-additive training. The figures are an internal Sandia case study and do not represent production lead times for qualified final hardware.
Key facts
- Machined-part lead time: 4–6 months to one week
- TPU surrogate iteration: 12 weeks to 12 hours
- Use: development and test hardware
- CAMINO is not a production facility
Context
The case shows how low-cost printed surrogates can accelerate design validation for national-security hardware without replacing final qualified materials.
