Auburn University’s National Center for Additive Manufacturing Excellence (NCAME) has formed two new partnerships to advance 3D printing research for aerospace and maritime defense industries. The collaborations involve powder manufacturer Amaero and shipbuilding company Austal USA, both seeking to address specific manufacturing challenges in their respective sectors.
Amaero has engaged NCAME researchers to evaluate the performance characteristics of their AM Nb-C103 and Ti-6Al-4V powder products. The Nb-C103 material, which costs up to $4,000 per kilogram, is designed for extreme heat applications due to its high melting temperature compared to nickel-based superalloys. NCAME has developed what it calls a high-throughput process development approach that allows for testing with minimal material quantities.
“We’ve developed a high-throughput, iterative process development approach allowing Amaero to provide NCAME with minimal material and get a quick picture of the process-structure-property relationships,” said NCAME research engineer Scot Carpenter. The center aims to complete evaluations within weeks rather than the months or years typically required when outsourcing to multiple laboratories.
Austal USA, which holds ship construction and maintenance contracts with the Navy and Coast Guard, is working with NCAME to address supply chain delays for conventional manufacturing. The company reports lead times of one to two years for many forged or cast parts needed in low volumes by the Department of Defense. The partnership focuses on establishing correlations between in-situ sensing data and resulting defects or microstructure in 3D printed parts, which ultimately affect mechanical properties and design predictability for structural applications.
Source: eng.auburn.edu