America Makes announces innovation call for Q&C of AM materials, processes and products
America Makes, Youngstown, Ohio, USA, has announced a new Rapid Innovation Call (RIC) for its members worth a total of $185,000 in funding from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Manufacturing and Industrial Base Technology Division. The aim of this RIC is to advance the qualification and certification (Q&C) of Additive Manufacturing materials, processes and products through the supply chain.
“We have been encouraging our membership community to submit topic ideas for subsequent RICs,” stated Brandon D Ribic, PhD, America Makes’ Technology Director. “We received tremendous support evidence by the high number of quality suggestions. While today’s RIC announcement encompasses three topics with unique technical focuses, they share a unified goal of advancing qualification and certification as a means to removing a recognised industry barrier to the broader adoption of Additive Manufacturing technologies.”
This RIC will address the following three topics:
- Characterization of Metal AM Process Surface Features
- Technical focus: the development and demonstration of in-situ process monitoring for metal AM surface features
- Goal: expand the understanding of metal AM and establish a quantitative data set in order to refine best practises, which will contribute to Q&C standards
- Cost share: none; this is a Member Driven RIC
- Award: $50,000
- AM Part Families for Product Qualification & Certification (Q&C)
- Technical focus: leverage existing AM datasets to create part families, increasing the amount of validated AM data within the public domain and developing Q&C standards
- Goal: drive broader adoption of AM in industries such as aerospace, medical and aviation where Q&C of AM parts is critical
- Cost share: 25%
- Award: $75,000
- Development of Test Artifacts for the Characterization of AM In-situ Process Monitoring Systems
- Technical focus: using test artefacts or geometric feature sets to evaluate the performance of in-situ process monitoring in metal-based AM commercial systems
- Goal: increase AM fabrication and parts quality in real time, rather than after fabrication
- Cost share: 25%
- Award: $60,000
An informational webinar will be held on February 18 at 2 PM EST (11 AM PST). Registration is required.
The submission deadline is March 1, before 5 PM EST (2 PM PST), with winners scheduled to be announced on March 15, 2021.
