Elementum 3D, SLM Solutions partner on metal AM

SLM Solutions and Elementum 3D are partnering to offer more metal additive manufacturing (AM) choices for producing advanced products.

Elementum 3D recently installed an SLM 280 system to test and define new powder development, adding to its portfolio that includes aluminum, copper, nickel alloy, steel alloy, and tantalum powders developed according to ISO 9001 quality management certification.

“It’s great to have partners like Elementum 3D that focuses on meeting the extended needs and desires of our customer base,” says Charlie Grace, chief sales officer at SLM Solutions.

“It’s imperative to provide every manufacturer with the option to adopt the disruptive power of additive manufacturing and having the right materials available that will meet their specific needs is the first step,” says Dr. Jacob Nuechterlein, president and founder of Elementum 3D.

America Makes awarded five teams of two recent Rapid Innovation Calls (RICs) worth $285,000 in funding from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Manufacturing, and Industrial Base Technology Division with $85,500 in matching funds from awarded project teams totalling $370,500.

Selected teams and projects include:

Searchable AM materials database

• 3Degrees LLC, in collaboration with Senvol, Northrop Grumman Corp., EOS, and Deloitte, to develop a searchable, scalable database using 3Degrees’ TRACEam software
• Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) will leverage data management tools developed by SwRI and the open-source data infrastructure of Materials Data Curation System (MDCS) from the Material Genome Initiative (MGI) program led by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to create a searchable, extendable XML-based database to systematically archive data

Characterization of metal AM process surface features

• The Ohio State University to expand the industry understanding of metal AM and establish a quantitative data set to refine best practices, which will contribute to developing qualification and certification (Q&C) standards

Development of test artifacts for the characterization of AM in-situ process monitoring systems

• Led by Applied Optimization Inc. in collaboration with Penn State University, the team will use AM process simulations to develop test artifacts to provide metrics for process monitoring systems to support qualification, certification efforts of AM parts. They aim to increase AM fabrication, AM parts quality in real time
• Baker Hughes Co. will pursue a holistic approach to in-situ process monitoring system characterization by probing the system response under strategically designed anomalous conditions beyond geometric features to assist in defect detection.