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Elementum 3D (E3D) was recently awarded $500,000 in funding through the America Makes Cooperative Agreement to lead a project focused on modeling additive geometries with novel materials for aerospace applications under Phase 2 of the High Temperature Applications Using Additive Manufacturing Program. The United States Department of Defense (DoD) recognizes the critical importance of high-velocity missile system capability to support the U.S. warfighter. These systems offer rapid response and accurate delivery of weapons effects through highly contested environments. E3D, specializing in the creation of advanced metals, composites, and ceramics to support additive manufacturing (AM) processes, will partner with Rolls-Royce, Applied Optimization, and the Applied Research Lab at Penn State University to advance high-temperature airframe materials and manufacturing technology to ensure that the U.S. military has a superior advantage over its adversaries.
Funded by the Office of the Secretary of Defense Manufacturing Technology (OSD ManTech) Program and Air Force Research Laboratory, E3D will work to leverage its proprietary Ni230-RAM1 material for additively manufactured heat shield tiles for turbine engines. Ni230-RAM1 is a highly crack-resistant modification of Haynes 230 nickel superalloy, which, though generally considered weldable, experiences extensive microcracking in laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) printing.
The project objective is to combine advanced material technologies with computational models to solve cracking and warping issues in LPBF printing of nickel superalloys. E3D’s reactive additive manufacturing (RAM) material technology will largely address cracking issues; and computational modeling using measured material property and in-situ process monitoring data as inputs, will predict geometry-dependent warping behavior. The model will also generate geometry-specific process parameters to prevent distortion.
The results of the 18-month project should enable more predictable and reliable LPBF printing of distortion-prone nickel superalloys and form a basis for predictive tools that can be applied to other material systems. Greater reliability will ultimately result in fewer scrap builds and reprints, increased efficiency, lower costs, and overall improved operating performance to meet the demanding requirements of high-velocity flight.
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