America Makes seeks additive manufacturing projects to fund

Youngstown, Ohio-based America Makes has made its next Project Call for Phase 3 of the Maturation of Advanced Manufacturing for Low-Cost Sustainment (MAMLS) program, funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Manufacturing and Industrial Base Technology Division.

Driven by the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM), America Makes and AFRL are targeting to make available approximately $5.7 million to fund multiple awards with at least $2.8 million in matching funds from the awarded project teams for total project call of roughly $8.5 million.

With the addition of this Project Call, America Makes will soon have a portfolio of more than $114.5 million in public and private funds invested in advancing the state-of-the-art in additive manufacturing (AM) in the United States.

“Today’s Project Call announcement marks a significant milestone for delivering additive manufacturing technology demonstrations and solutions that can elevate the entire sustainment community’s understanding and use of additive manufacturing,” said Rob Gorham, America Makes’ executive director. “Phase 3 of MAMLS will improve rapid part replacement/maintenance for legacy aircraft, enable on-demand replacement of critically damaged or obsolete components, and reduce the cost and lead time to fabricate replacement components. This is an effort with the potential to resolve the existing challenges that are hindrances to maintaining the strategic readiness of the Air Force, as well as the entire military, today and well into the future.”

The MAMLS program is aimed at improving efficiency of the factory and/or Air Force Air Logistics Complexes for rapid part replacement for legacy and other aircraft. The objective of this Project Call effort is to address key challenges to the insertion of AM technology for maintenance, sustainment, and logistics operations within the Department of Defense that were previously identified throughout MAMLS Phases 1 and 2. The previously identified material, process, and post-processing barriers are not only preventing greater penetration of AM technology for more challenging, safety critical applications, but also impeding the fulfillment of the extensive breadth of parts required by the Air Force sustainment community.

Three technical topics for this Project Call will be considered for proposals up to $5.7 million:

Topic 1 – Feature-based qualification (FBQ) using directed energy deposition (DED)

Topic 2 – Understanding manufacturing realities of AM

Topic 3 – Emerging process technology for low-criticality part families

Project call proposal deadline
All project concept forms are due by 5 p.m. EST Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2018. For complete details, click here.

Webinar
America Makes will convene a Project Call Kick-off Webinar on Friday, Dec. 1, 2017, to review all the criteria. Immediately following the conclusion of the Webinar, there will be a brief Q&A session. To register for this webinar, visit http://ncdmm.webex.com/.