America Makes is proud to announce that the Colorado School of Mines (CSOM) has been awarded $250K in funding by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), through a recent project call titled Methods for AM Cross-Platform Consistency (AM-CPC).
The AM-CPC Project Call is a collaboration between NIST, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), and America Makes to advance measurement science research for the reproducibility of additive manufacturing (AM) processes. Proposals for this project call were expected to outline neutral manufacturing plans to foster an understanding of consistency for multiple metal laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) machines, help accelerate AM process qualification, and deliver a measurement method specification that may be used for analyzing various LPBF equipment.
Led by CSOM and Associate Professor Dr. Joy Gockel, the project team will consist of 3D Systems, Aconity 3D, AddUP, EOS North America, Concept Laser (GE Additive Company), Open Additive, Renishaw, Velo3D, and Xact Metal. The proposed project aims to address the challenge of qualifying AM processes for commercial and defense applications by investigating cross-platform consistency in LPBF technologies. The team will engage with nine different LPBF original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to develop a neutral manufacturing plan to establish consistency across platforms and determine methods for analyzing and improving the consistency of LPBF processes.
Results from this project, expected to be completed in January of 2025, will provide the industrial supply chain with the knowledge of cross-platform printing capability for broad implementation with data made available to America Makes members.