3D Systems, Rock Hill, S.C., has been awarded two research contracts worth over $1 million to develop advanced aerospace and defense 3D printing manufacturing capabilities on a commercial scale. The two contracts leverage Selective Laser Sintering and Direct Metal 3D Printing to meet the demanding advanced manufacturing road map of the U.S. Air Force. These contracts are administered by America Makes and funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory.
Together with some of the nation’s leading military suppliers—including Honeywell, Northrop Grumman, and Lockheed Martin—3D Systems will develop a precision closed-loop and advanced manufacturing and monitoring platform, designed to deliver the accuracy, functionality, and repeatability specifications demanded for flight-worthy aerospace parts.
The first contract is led by 3D Systems in partnership with the University of Delaware’s Center for Composite Manufacturing, Sandia National Laboratory, and Lockheed Martin Corp. The project is designed to integrate predictive technologies with SLS 3D printers to dynamically monitor parts at the layer level during the manufacturing process, ensuring optimum accuracy and repeatability of aerospace parts.
The second contract, in collaboration with the Applied Research Laboratory of Pennsylvania State University in partnership with Honeywell International and Northrop Grumman Corporation, leverages Direct Metal 3D printing. As a result of this project, aerospace and defense manufacturers will gain full control of every aspect of the direct metal manufacturing process at the layer level, delivering fully dense, chemically pure, flight worthy metal parts.
Both projects are set to commence in early 2015.
