America Makes Announces Winners of Open Project Call Totaling $1.2 Million

The National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) and America Makes (the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute) have announced the winners of the $1.2 million Open Project Call 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).

Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies offer a range of benefits including unique product geometries, fewer tooling requirements and relatively shorter lead times in comparison to other manufacturing methods. The industrialization of AM represents an opportunity to convert demonstrated manufacturing capability into capable manufacturing capacity.

America Makes facilitated workshops in 2021 and 2022, convening leaders in the AM industry, along with Institute members and advisory group participants, that ultimately resulted in the continued curation of the Additive Manufacturing Technology Roadmap. The roadmap was used to identify and formulate the topical areas for the project call.

“The continuous progress made in research, development and implementation of AM innovations in the areas of design, materials, processes, genome and value chain that result from these funded projects is paramount to our nation’s competitive advantage,” says Brandon Ribic, technology director at America Makes. “Forecasts suggest a continued surge in AM in the coming years as more traditional manufacturing industries are expected to shift toward 3D printing for production, due to its ability to create complex, high-performance parts at lower costs and faster speeds. The work currently being facilitated by these awardees is instrumental to the technological advancements of tomorrow and can be integrated across diverse industries, including those still utilizing traditional manufacturing.”

Award winners and related topic areas:

Topic 1: Design for Dimensional Inspection of Internal Features via In-Situ Process Monitoring

• Project 1: Inspection Using In-Situ Height Mapping Data
  • Team Lead: RTX Technology Research Center (RTRC)
  • Project Team: Velo3D

Topic 2: Thermal Manipulations for Processing Improvements

• Project 1: Fast Scanning Mirror Wobble Enabled Build Schema (Fast-WEBS)
  • Team Lead: GE Research
  • Project Team: Johns Hopkins University

Topic 4: Frameworks for Utilizing Process Monitoring in Conjunction with Ex-Situ Inspection for Qualification

• Lead: R3 Digital Science
• Project Team: Macy Consulting; The Ohio State University Center for Design and Manufacturing Excellence; and University of Louisville Additive Manufacturing Institute of Science & Technology  Team

Topic 6: “Should vs. Could” Tool and Training

• Project 1: America Makes Methods and Approaches for Sustainable Operations
  • Team Lead: Deloitte Consulting
  • Project Team: N/A

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.

America Makes is a public-private partnership for AM technology and education. Its members from industry, academia, government, workforce and economic development organizations work together to accelerate the adoption of AM and the nation’s global manufacturing competitiveness. It was founded in 2012 as the Department of Defense’s national manufacturing innovation institute for AM and first of the Manufacturing USA network. It is managed by the not-for-profit NCDMM.