Winners announced for $920K America Makes AM R&D funding
America Makes, based in Youngstown, Ohio, USA, and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) have announced the winners of a $920,000 project call focused on High Priority Open Topics in Additive Manufacturing.
Funded by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, Manufacturing Technology Office (OSD ManTech), the project call consisted of two topic areas focused on the development and maturation of AM repairs for sustainment and beam shaping. The AM repairs for sustainment methods include technologies targeting metal AM in two areas: sustainment repairs using Directed Energy Deposition (DED) and Cold Spray, and beam shaping for Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB). The goal is to advance manufacturing technologies and processes that lower costs, accelerate production, and strengthen industrial responsiveness to meet defence needs.
This project 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 prioritise 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 defence and industrial needs.
“By engaging our members with focus and structure, we’re targeting the defence sector’s most urgent needs and advancing key Additive Manufacturing technologies – from certifiable repair and precise material deposition to standards development and beam shaping in [PBF-LB] – to boost quality, efficiency, and performance,” Martin stated. “These advances strengthen sustainment and accelerate AM adoption across defense and industry. Congratulations to the project winners for leading the way.”
Below is the list of award winners and related topic areas:
Topic 1: AM Repairs for Sustainment
- Team Lead: RTX Technology Research Centre
- Project Team: Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology
Topic 2: Beam Shaping
- Team Lead: Colorado School of Mines
- Project Team: DMG MORI, nLight, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Project teams will report on their progress at the America Makes Technical Review and Exchange (TRX) and other industry events during the execution phase of the programme.
