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Elementum 3D to lead America Makes-funded material property datasets program for metal 3D printing
Elementum 3D has been awarded 2,875,000 USD by America Makes to generate material property datasets with high statistical power for ‘industrially relevant’ aluminium and nickel alloys.
The project hopes to accelerate the adoption of additive manufacturing in the aerospace, automotive, defence and energy sectors by providing engineers with greater confidence. By developing material property datasets, Elementum 3D and its various partners are confident engineers will be able to apply materials for critical applications with an extremely low tolerance for failure.
This New 3D Printable Wonder Material Could Help Propel NASA’s Future Missions Into Deep Space
Recognizing its potential, engineers with NASA’s Reactive Additive Manufacturing for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (RAMFIRE) project decided to see whether aluminum could be engineered in such a way that it could become a viable material for use in 3D printing rocket components. The result was A6061-RAM2, a novel aluminum variant that, when paired with a specialized powder in a process known as laser powder-directed energy deposition, or LP-DED, succeeded in producing the RAMFIRE rocket nozzles.
Although conventional nozzles may require hundreds, or even close to a thousand small, conjoined parts, the RAMFIRE nozzles are single-piece constructions, which helps to significantly reduce manufacturing and assembly time.