Lighter Faster Deployable Assault Gap Crossing System with ADI

The Marine Corps is seeking a rapidly deployable gap crossing system that is modular, scalable, easily transportable by ground and air for crossing up to 15-meter gaps with up to 60-ton vehicles.Ā Current designs typically rely on steel with hydraulics to put in place or aluminum sections that take too long to assemble/deploy and retract/disassemble which puts personnel at risk. Skuld proposes to use their novel ductile iron manufacturing process combined with their new patent pending process called Additive Manufacturing Evaporative Casting (AMC) which joins polymer 3D printing with lost foam investment casting.Ā Ductile iron is 10% less dense than steel but can have strengths of up to 230 ksi which makes it have a specific strength superior to aluminum.Ā Skuld has previously used their thin walled ductile iron technology with bridge plates for railroad applications which enabled a 68% weight reduction and halved the manpower necessary for deployment.Ā By combining these technologies along with topology optimization techniques, Skuld will demonstrate a proof-of-concept design that is lightweight enough to be assembled in under 5 minutes and that can meet all of the Marine Corps stretch objectives for this new system.