America Makes and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) are proud to announce a new project call funded by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, Manufacturing Technology Office (OSD ManTech) worth a total of $920K. The project call, High Priority Open Topics for Additive Manufacturing (AM), focuses on the development and maturation of AM repairs for sustainment and beam shaping.
AM repairs for sustainment methods will include technologies such as directed energy deposition (DED) and cold spray. The beam shaping technology will focus on laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) processes. The project call consists of two topic areas, both concentrated on metals. Higher-level goals include developing and improving manufacturing technologies and processes to enable cost reduction, improving production speed, and enhancing industrial capability that will be responsive to warfighter needs. A total of two awards are anticipated (one per topic area).
This latest project call reflects a focused, collaborative effort led by the America Makes Roadmap Advisory Group (RMAG) and its five working groups: Design, Process, Material, Value Chain, and AM Genome. According to John Martin, AM Research Director at America Makes, these groups met over two months to generate and prioritize project topics. Based on survey results, the priorities were then shared with the Department of Defense’s Joint Additive Manufacturing Working Group (JAMWG), which selected key focus areas based on national defense and industrial needs.