America Makes Shares Two Project Calls Worth Over $25M in Funding

America Makes and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) announced two new project calls worth a combined $25.6M in funding.

The first project call, Maturation Initiative for Additive Metals Interchangeability (MIAMI), is worth $12.4M and is funded through the Office of the Under Secretary of War, Acquisition and Sustainment, Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment (IBAS) Program. This opportunity validates that metallic additive manufacturing (AM) materials can replace traditional alloys in Department of War (DoW) weapon system components.

Project teams will select candidate parts, define performance requirements, and generate shared, validated data demonstrating that the AM material meets or exceeds properties of the legacy alloys it is intended to substitute. The goal is to enable cross-platform use of AM materials, reduce redundant testing, and accelerate qualification so AM solutions can be adopted quickly and confidently across the defense industrial base. 

“Advancing material interchangeability through additive manufacturing is a strategic step toward strengthening the nation’s defense posture,” says John Martin, Additive Manufacturing research director at America Makes. “This effort delivers the analytical rigor and validated data needed to accelerate trusted AM adoption, directly supporting the Department of War’s priorities for a more resilient and responsive industrial base.”

The MIAMI project call consists of two phases, beginning with Phase 0. This phase will provide a documented assessment of applications and traditional materials where the selected AM material is expected to serve as a substitute.

Planning: Define qualification-ready process, material, and feedstock specifications and provide a analysis identifying where the selected AM material can replace legacy components across a weapons system, including priority use cases, performance requirements, and adoption conditions.

Process definition: Develop process control documentation.

Preliminary data: Conduct preliminary qualification testing to confirm that the defined process controls produce AM material with room‑temperature mechanical properties that meet established threshold requirements.

Phase 0 work will be followed by a final phase in which testing and demonstration will be conducted according to the test plan developed in Phase 0.

The second project call, INtegrated System for In-situ Testing & Evaluation (INSITE), worth $13.2M, is funded through the Office of the Under Secretary of War, Acquisition and Sustainment, IBAS Program, and the Office of the Under Secretary of War, Manufacturing Technology Office (OSW ManTech). 

The project’s objective is to establish an integrated AM quality‑assurance system that unifies in‑situ monitoring and post‑build inspection.

This combined in-situ and post-build nondestructive evaluation (NDE) approach aims to improve inspection of some of AM’s challenging parts. By combining real-time monitoring during production with accelerated post-build inspection and expert oversight, the approach seeks to strengthen quality assurance, support certification, and expand manufacturing capabilities for critical components.

“As additive manufacturing scales to larger and more complex components, the ability to confidently verify part quality becomes mission critical,” says Ben DiMarco, Technology transition director at America Makes. “This project brings together advanced analytics, in‑situ monitoring, and next‑generation NDE into a unified strategy that strengthens our industrial base and accelerates the deployment of reliable AM capabilities across defense applications.”

The INSITE project consists of tasking phases with associated decision gates for each, including:

• Gate 1: Initial integration of sensors into the AM machine and collection of in-situ data.
• Gate 2: Demonstration of in-situ data identifying areas of interest for post-build NDE.
• Gate 3: Correlation of in-situ data with NDE results.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.