America Makes announces latest project call winners

The National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) and America Makes, the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, announced the winners of the $5.75M Proliferation of Additively Manufactured (AM) Material Datasets, funded by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, Research and Engineering Manufacturing Technology Office (OSD(R&E)), and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).

Recognizing the opportunity of expansive material utilization beyond Ti-6Al-4V, the objective of the Proliferation of AM Materials Datasets project aims to rapidly increase the number and type of pedigreed, statistically based, and industrially relevant AM material datasets. Award recipients are required to collaborate with small businesses to bolster applicable learnings, best practices, and data to benefit and address the needs of the broader AM supply chain.

“The awardees will be advancing our domestic manufacturing capability with the development and delivery of these material datasets. Aluminum and nickel-based alloys are pivotal in lightweight design and elevated temperature applications across the aerospace, automotive, defense, and energy sectors,” says Brandon Ribic, Technology Director at America Makes. “The rigor necessary to generate such pedigreed, statistically based material data is incredibly demanding. The outcomes of these efforts will be a substantial contribution to the AM design community. Furthermore, such collaborations are a tremendous benefit to small and medium-sized organizations as they drastically improve our knowledge base, domestic manufacturing competency, and can significantly reduce barriers to entry. We are so thrilled for this opportunity for collective learning and to serve the nation’s supply chain agility and resiliency needs.”

Below is the list of award winners and related topic areas:

Topic 1: Aluminum Alloy Material Dataset

• Title: Generation of Design Allowable Datasets for A7050-Ram Based on MMPDS C/D-Basis Guidelines
• Team Lead: Elementum 3D Inc.
• Project Team: Battelle, Castheon Inc., Dyndrite Corp., Eaton Corp., EOS North America, Incodema Inc., National Institute for Aviation Research, Product Evaluation Systems Inc., The Ohio State University Center for Design and Manufacturing Excellence, Westmoreland Mechanical Testing and Research

Topic 2: High-Temperature Nickel-Based Superalloys

• Title: Proliferation of Nickel Superalloy Material Datasets for Powder Bed Fusion Additive Manufacturing
• Team Lead: Electric Power Research Institute
• Project Team: Alloyed Inc., Citrine Informatics, Product Evaluation Systems, Siemens Energy Inc., The Boeing Company, The Barnes Global Advisors

In addition, funds were allocated to Wichita State University National Institute of Aviation Research (NIAR) and Penn State University Applied Research Laboratory (PSU-ARL) for data review and documentation and strategic data management development.

Project teams will report on their progress at the America Makes Technical Review and Exchange and other industry events during the execution phase of the program.