Velo3D and Sandia National Laboratories sign five-year metal AM research agreement
Velo3D, Fremont, California, USA, has signed a five-year Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico, to explore joint research into metal Additive Manufacturing relevant to the defence industrial base and energy infrastructure.
The agreement establishes a framework for collaboration, with individual projects to be scoped and approved separately through separate Project Task Statements. Potential research areas include part reliability, repeatability across machines and production sites, materials development, workforce development and technology transfer.
“Sandia has decades of experience answering some of the nation’s most challenging problems, with a diverse set of capabilities and areas of expertise,” stated Arun Jeldi, Chief Executive Officer of Velo3D. “Metal Additive Manufacturing research, in combination with Sandia’s other capabilities, offers a tremendous opportunity to advance the state of the technology, and working with its team gives us a rigorous research partner on the questions that matter most to programmes moving parts into production at scale. This agreement is a starting point.”
One area of interest is the ability to reproduce builds across different AM machines. Velo3D states that its Golden Print File methodology is designed to reproduce the same build across its Sapphire systems. The company expects to share findings from the collaboration as the research progresses.
