Nikon and America Makes Partner to Strengthen U.S. Defense Manufacturing

Nikon reports a development agreement between Nikon Advanced Manufacturing and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM), managers of America Makes.

This partnership is funded by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, Manufacturing Technology Office (OSD ManTech) through America Makes, a public-private partnership for additive manufacturing (AM) technology and education. This $2.1M project, which encompasses the first two phases of a multi-phase program, will advance AM adoption of Constellium’s Aheadd CP1 Aluminum alloy, particularly for defense and aerospace applications.

Project partners include Constellium, ASTM International and 3Degrees, and a consortium of prime defense metal AM experts from Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX, General Atomics, and Honeywell Aerospace Technologies who will advise and monitor the program’s progress.

This project is aligned with Nikon Advanced Manufacturing’s commitment to accelerate AM technologies for the U.S.’ Defense Industrial Base.

“We are committed to accelerating and scaling metal additive manufacturing for defense and aerospace applications," says Hamid Zarringhalam, CEO of Nikon Advanced Manufacturing. "Manufacturers recognize AM’s tremendous potential to address gaps in the defense industrial base, particularly through high-performance materials and advanced technologies like Nikon SLM Solutions’ large-format NXG XII 600 series laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) systems.”  

CP1 Aluminum alloy holds additive manufacturing potential, particularly in thermal management and heat exchanger-type components utilized in defense and aerospace. Nikon Advanced Manufacturing will utilize Nikon AM Synergy to systematically validate and produce the CP1 material datasets through the project’s testing phases. “This project focuses on basic and intermediate-level property characterization, and we will form a collaborative Government Advisory Team with the Joint Additive Manufacturing Working Group (JAMWG) to support program direction-setting, review, and go/no-go decisions, as well as to guide the Material Property Dataset transfer into the Workbench for Additive Materials (WAM) database,” says Dr. Behrang Poorganji, Nikon Advanced Manufacturing vice president of Technology. 

The materials database is an enabler for Department of Defense and commercial aerospace applications, and the U.S. government will release the datasets to qualified partners in the defense and aerospace ecosystem. Prime defense contractors and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have projected return-on-investment towards integration in their platform over current alloy and manufacturing process combinations. 

About Nikon Advanced Manufacturing

Founded in April 2023, in California, Nikon Advanced Manufacturing (AM) is the global headquarters of the Nikon Advanced Manufacturing Business Unit. The company develops digital manufacturing solutions for the aerospace and defense, automotive, aviation, and energy sectors.

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