NAMII Awards $4.5 Million to Seven 3D Printing Projects

Additive manufacturing (AM) has taken some great strides in the two plus decades the technology has been around, but there’s always room for innovation. Continuing research and development will ensure that AM keeps pace with the demands of an evolving industry. National defense also has a stake in AM, and any improvements have the potential to save lives.

It was with those two areas primarily in mind that President Obama pushed ahead with his plan for a National Network for Manufacturing Innovation. The pilot program for the Network, the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute (NAMII), was founded in Youngstown, OH and has become a center for advances in AM. Last November, NAMII and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) sent out a call for projects, and now seven programs have been selected to share $4.5 million in funding.

“As a collective, NCDMM and NAMII found that the submitted proposals detailed highly innovative additive manufacturing project ideas, featuring applied research and development, efficient use of digital data, high sustainability, and aggressive education outreach and workforce training plans,” said NCDMM Vice President and NAMII Director Ed Morris.

“The down-select process proved to be intense. NAMII’s fundamental objective is to spawn the creation of new, innovative products and the corresponding U.S. jobs to support them based on the unique capabilities of additive manufacturing. NCDMM and NAMII have selected seven projects that best integrate with the four NAMII thrust areas of technology development, technology transition, advanced manufacturing enterprise, and education/workforce outreach,” added Morris.

The seven projects selected by the committee are: 

• “Maturation of Fused Depositing Modeling (FDM) Component Manufacturing” from Rapid Prototype + Manufacturing LLC (RP+M).

• “Qualification of Additive Manufacturing Processes and Procedures for Repurposing and Rejuvenation of Tooling” from Case Western Reserve University.

• Sparse-Build Rapid Tooling by Fused Depositing Modeling (FDM) for Composite Manufacturing and Hydroforming” from the Missouri University of Science and Technology.

• “Fused Depositing Modeling (FDM) for Complex Composites Tooling” from Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems.

• “Maturation of High-Temperature Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) Technologies and Infrastructure” from Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems.

• “Thermal Imaging for Process Monitoring and Control of Additive Manufacturing” from the Penn State University Center for Innovative Materials Processing through Direct Digital Deposition (CIMP 3D).

• “Rapid Qualification Methods for Powder Bed Direct Metal Additive Manufacturing Processes” from Case Western Reserve University.

NAMII will announce its next project call at RAPID 2013, which will be held in Pittsburgh from June 10 -13. According to the press release, the next call will:

“This next project call will reflect further refined and key strategic topic areas necessary for NAMII to meet the needs of industry partners and enable the widespread adoption of additive manufacturing technologies and innovations.”

Below you’ll find a clip from NPR’s visit to NAMII.

Source: NAMII