America Makes funding to advance additive manufacturing design and testing

To advance the maturation of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies, America Makes has announced The Ohio State University's Center for Design and Manufacturing Excellence (CDME) as a winner of its recent Rapid Innovation Call (RIC). Through this initiative, Ohio State will receive funding from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, and Manufacturing and Industrial Base Technology Division.

America Makes, the national accelerator for additive manufacturing and 3D printing, introduced topics of the RIC in August, representing a concerted effort by the institute and its members to strategically prioritize investment that will best help shape the industry's direction.

Ohio State researchers were awarded two projects, each receiving $100,000 in funding to address different topic domains.

Ohio State's award-winning submission, "Metal Lattice Design, Testing, and Application Study," will continue to build and develop lattice best practices by leveraging lessons learned from a previous America Makes project.

The new project aims to support lightweight design methods of AM thin walls and struts by further advancing the processability of these structures. The goal is to better understand the manufacturability of lightweight designs and structures to advance their adoption in the automotive, aerospace, medical and energy industries.

CDME will partner with Ohio State's Dynamic Mechanics of Materials Laboratory (DMML) on the project. DMML will lead testing, while CDME will focus on design and manufacturing. Additionally, Ohio State will receive support from Lockheed Martin, Elementum3D and 3Degrees.

CDME's second winning submission, "Quantify the Effects of Build Interruptions Through In-Process Monitoring and Mechanical Test," proposed to simulate build interruptions to better understand the impact of disruption on the mechanical properties of additively manufactured parts. CDME will evaluate multiple AM machine platforms and materials as part of the project. Current monitoring research typically focuses on continuous operations of AM processes. Additional support will be provided by Northrop Grumman, Honda Aero and Praxair.

In March 2021, CDME was awarded funding to investigate the capability of multiple in-process monitoring systems to characterize AM part surfaces by identifying gaps and highlighting which methods are best suited to quantify feature characteristics. The project's goal was to expand industry understanding of metal AM and establish a quantitative data set to refine best practices. This will subsequently contribute to developing qualification and certification (Q&C) standards.

Ultimately, Ohio State is well-positioned to be a leader in AM and 3D printing. CDME houses more than $5 million worth of AM equipment, including industrial 3D printers capable of processing metals, polymers, composites, biomaterials and ceramics.