News

America Makes Spring 2024 TRX Encourages Nimble Exploration to Drive AM Advancement

April 23, 2024 | Categories: America Makes News, Member News, Project Call, Technology

YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO – The spring Technical Review & Exchange (TRX) event hosted by America Makes, the U.S. additive manufacturing (AM) industry’s leading voice, took place on April 9-11, 2024, at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, CO. The three-day event brought together hundreds of engineers, decision-makers, government officials, members, and partners across the AM industry, showcasing more than 30 projects and the Institute’s exponential growth and achievements.  

“America Makes is here to serve as the voice of the AM industry. We are working with those in industry and academia, the national lab network, and even beyond the Department of Defense (DoD), to understand the technical attributes to change our current state,” said Brandon Ribic, Technology Director at America Makes. 

 During TRX@Mines, keynote speakers delivered technical discussions sharing their expert perspectives, including Zhenzhen Yu and Owen Hildreth from the Colorado School of Mines, Ryan Ott from the Ames National Laboratory, and Callie Higgins and Nik Hrabe from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). 

 As with previous events, this year’s conference allowed members to look deeper at the Institute’s groundbreaking work, offering insights into some of AM’s biggest challenges and growth opportunities. In addition to research and development (R&D) updates, the event was a knowledge hub for industry leaders to network and share innovative approaches across design, material, process and value chain, operations, and beyond.  

 Metal AM process and material advancements  

Controlling variability and monitoring material properties and microstructure emerged as headlining topic areas. As noted in Hrabe’s keynote, current challenges, such as a limited understanding of powder properties, unclear measurement techniques, and varying reproducibility of different powder metrics, are pervasive barriers hindering standard protocols for powder measurement techniques across equipment manufacturers. 

NIST’s latest process monitoring developments across metal build part irregularities focused on fatigue and fracture behavior in critical applications to address these gaps. Hrabe optimistically proclaims a greater understanding of these processes. “I think as a community we’re getting better at printing parts that, when possible, can have minimal defects and rough surfaces or internal pores no longer drive component failure,” Hrabe said.

To date, Hrabe and the NIST research team accomplished the following:  

• Discovered new sources of variation in AM titanium and developed effective mitigation strategies.  
• Led the development of two new ISO/ASTM standards for design guidelines and powder handling.  
• Pioneered a novel fatigue-resistant AM titanium microstructure and introduced a cost-effective process control technique to enhance fatigue performance.  
• Enabled the first-time use of AM titanium in critical medical device applications.  
• Devised a resonant acoustic technique for speedy, cost-effective, nondestructive evaluation of AM parts. 

In further material development, Ott highlighted progress in developing refractory alloy powders for AM and the current industrialization challenges and opportunities. Utilizing data from existing Oxide Dispersion Strengthened (ODS) methodologies, Ott claimed he and his team at Ames National Laboratory had seen incremental successes in developing high-performance aluminum alloys with higher melting temperatures, potentially foreshadowing significant advancement toward commercialization. 

“We are trying to fill that tech gap using nuclear fusion, and we hope to leverage the capabilities and the expertise to translate that fundamental discovery science into that commercial adoption,” Ott said. 

Areas of focus for qualification and standardization 

TRX@Mines highlighted the significance of qualification and standardization in hastening AM adoption in aerospace and defense. Delta qualification projects echoed the need for a standardized approach to AM to ensure quality, reliability, and safety. 

Among the current six active projects, The Ohio State University Center for Design Manufacturing Excellence’s Ben DiMarco, Project Leader, urged engineers to embrace new ideas while discussing the project for Rapid Qualification Pathway for Metal Additive Manufacturing using PBF-L for Critical Applications in partnership with EOS. DiMarco’s team has developed an innovative data fusion approach that leverages optical cameras, tomography sensors, and machine data to streamline the metal AM process. By utilizing these cutting-edge technologies, the team is positioned to create a faster and more flexible data-driven framework that can be used across multiple machines to increase supply chain efficiency. The results of this project could revolutionize the field of metal AM. 

Similarly, Zack Simkin of Senvol discussed his team’s project focusing on material allowables for qualification. Senvol and its team devised an innovative approach to developing a material design that leverages machine learning (ML) algorithms.  

Senvol’s ML approach analyzed numerous changing parameters simultaneously within the topic area’s scope, noting each parameter’s marginal contribution. The research teams’ efforts indicated a viable alternative to conventional “point solution” methods, opening the door for a more economically feasible and flexible approach. Furthermore, it substantiated that data-driven ML algorithms could significantly reduce the cost of material design allowable development. This approach leads to a greater understanding of optimal solutions to overcome the qualification and re-qualification challenges that slow the expansion of this innovative industry. 

Casting and forging 

AM’s potential to improve the casting and forging (C&F) sector took center stage as several presenters demonstrated new findings as part of America Makes multi-year technology C&F roadmap. From Brady Williams from Wichita State University—National Institute for Aviation Research sourcing to Mayank Garg from Cleveland State University, members addressed several roadmap areas while offering attendees a deeper look into AM’s enhancing potential for the C&F sector.  

Honeywell’s Greg Colvin presented findings from the project Transitioning Best Practices and Technical Improvements for 3D Printed Molds/Cores for Sand Castings. In partnership with Ex-One, Hoosier Pattern, Ohio Aluminum, and Chicago Magnesium, Colvin discussed the team’s effort to improve the casting quality of parts produced with AM sand molds and cores. The project aims to reduce porosity, improve surface roughness, minimize dimensional variations, and disseminate findings to the industry, with The American Foundry Association (AFS) developing training materials and courses to promote innovative solutions for small and medium-sized foundries. 

Along those same lines, America Makes’ cemented its commitment to expanding the C&F industry as John Martin, Research Director, announced the Institute’s latest project call worth $6.6M. The project, Improvements in Manufacturing Productivity via Additive Capabilities and Techno-Economic Analysis 2.0 (IMPACT 2.0), strives to revolutionize the manufacturing industry. Its two-pronged approach aims to showcase improvements in lead time, productivity, and yield for the C&F manufacturing operations. 

AM innovation is driven by collaboration 

TRX@Mines highlighted the critical components for unlocking the full potential of AM as a revolutionary technology: unconventional thinking, exploration, and collaboration. As Ribic noted, “There is more to do, but to that point, we have to address what we don’t know and the unknowns.” In this regard, the reintroduction of CORE, the Institute’s digital information hub, presented by Joe Veranese, Vice President and Chief Information Officer at NCDMM, and Jason Saly, Director of IT and Cloud Services, is a step towards fostering collaboration and providing reliable information on the latest datasets for members to access. This move will undoubtedly facilitate increased partnerships and information sharing, ultimately leading to the acceleration of the AM industry. 

As we look forward to the future of AM, it is exciting to see how projects will unfold and the timescale for the broader adoption of this transformative technology. 

To view the content presented at TRX, please visit HERE.