America Makes Awards AFRL-Funded Projects

America Makes, the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute (Youngstown, Ohio) has announced the awarding of three Air Force Research Laboratory-funded (AFRL) special topic project calls. Driven by the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM), America Makes will award more than $2.12 million in funding toward these projects, with $998,000 in matching cost-share from the awarded project teams, for total funding worth $3.12 million.

The three special topic projects focus on areas of particular interest to AFRL, including closed-loop process control, open-source protocol and nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of complex structures. Subject to the finalization of all contractual details and requirements, the selected awardees are as follows:

Special Topic – Powder Bed Fusion of Thermoplastics Closed-Loop Process Control

• Awardee #1: 3D Systems, in partnership with the University of Delaware–Center for Composite Manufacturing (UD-CCM), Sandia National Laboratory (SNL) and Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMCO), for a predictive-model-based scheme included within a closed-loop hardware/software system for thermoplastic powder bed fusion.
• Awardee #2: University of Texas–Austin, in partnership Harvest/Stratasys, for a project focused on using closed-loop process control for powder bed fusion (PBF) of thermoplastics.

Special Topic – Open-Source Process Control for Powder Bed Additive Manufacturing Research

• Awardee #1: GE Global Research, in partnership with GE Aviation’s Additive Development Center (ADC), and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), for a project to develop, document and demonstrate open-source protocols and machine controllers for powder bed fusion additive manufacturing (PBFAM) on commercial and custom-made metal additive machines.
• Awardee #2: Pennsylvania State University, in partnership with Honeywell International Inc., Northrop Grumman Corp. and 3D Systems Inc., for a project to develop and demonstrate an open, layered protocol for PBFAM that will define a set of communication constructs used within a cyber-physical system.

Special Topic – Nondestructive Evaluation of Complex Metallic Additive Manufactured Structures

• Awardee: EWI, for a project pursuing the application of established nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques in the inspection of AM components made from titanium and nickel-based alloys and those components fabricated using two AM processes, direct metal laser melting (DMLM) and electron beam melting (EBM).

The Special Topic Projects are expected to start early this year.

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