Researchers at Arizona State University are creating new artificial intelligence tools to enhance metal 3D printing processes. Professors Aviral Shrivastava and Ashif Iquebal from the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence have received National Science Foundation funding for their project “CompAM: Enabling Computational Additive Manufacturing.” Their work aims to make stainless steel 3D printing more reliable by predicting material formation during manufacturing.
The team plans to demonstrate their technology by printing a five-axis naval propeller using 316L stainless steel. They aim to control the printing process with enough precision to engineer metal grain size below one micron, which can significantly improve material properties. Current simulation methods for such complex parts can be prohibitively time-consuming, requiring over 60 days on a 1,000-core supercomputer for a single set of printing parameters.
“When we do metal printing, the quality of metal is actually dependent on the cooling curve,” Shrivastava explains. “We want to control cooling so we can achieve the desired properties.” The researchers are developing a physics-informed AI system that learns as it operates, identifying important data points while skipping areas that don’t change significantly during printing.
Iquebal emphasizes the practical applications of their research: “The real value of this work is its ability to bridge research and industrial need. In industries like aerospace, defense and energy, the performance of metal components isn’t negotiable — it’s mission-critical.” The team will test their technology using a high-tech 3D printer with a six-axis robotic arm at the ASU Innovation Hub.
The research has educational components as well. Shrivastava indicated that the team will incorporate their work into graduate-level computer science classes and conduct outreach for K-12 students. The software and tools developed will be made freely available to help researchers in other fields accelerate their simulations.
Source: news.asu.edu