America Makes Accepts Certified Selective Laser Sintering Additive Manufactured Nylon 12 Database from Northrop Grumman

America Makes announces that Platinum-level member, Northrop Grumman Corporation, will release its proprietary developed, vetted, and certified Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) additive manufactured Nylon 12 Database to America Makes and its membership community with the goal of furthering the comercialization of Nylon 12 material within the additive manufacturing (AM) material supply chain. The Nylon 12 Database will be available to the membership community via the America Makes Digital Storefront.

“As a founding member of America Makes, we recognize and value Northrop Grumman’s long-standing commitment to our mission,” says America Makes Executive Director Rob Gorham. “Releasing the Nylon 12 Database to us and our membership community further underscores that commitment. Since our inception, a contribution of this magnitude by a member to America Makes and our community is unprecedented. Northrop Grumman’s move is a game-changing one for our industry, proving that by collaborating together we can achieve more.”

“Our decision to release the Nylon 12 Database was based on wanting to enhance AM supply chain capabilities,” Eric Barnes, Fellow, Northrop Grumman says. “We firmly believe that America Makes has facilitated more collaboration throughout the AM industry and moreover, has enabled a broader use of AM within the aerospace sector. For instance, the America Makes research project on the polyetherketoneketone (PEKK) polymer resulted in the material being proliferated throughout the aerospace industry and integrated across the material supply chain. It is our belief that the release of the Nylon 12 Database to America Makes achieves similar results.”

Northrop Grumman will provide the Nylon 12 Database to America Makes through its participation in the @Program. Established in 2017, the @Program is a unique methodology to recognize and support the work and activities that members are likely already working on and that align to the mission objectives of America Makes. By supporting America Makes’ desire to cultivate a diverse and robust membership community, the @Program is helping to bring more visibility to the current AM ecosystem while making ongoing membership in America Makes more feasible.

“Northrop Grumman is the first member to make such a significant contribution to America Makes and our membership community,” says America Makes Membership Director Tiffany Westbay. “The impact of this contribution will be felt industry-wide and we expect it will open the door for other America Makes members to share their intellectual property for the good of our community and the industry. Northrop Grumman by participating in the @Program is leveraging an important benefit that membership in America Makes affords them.”

Additionally, the Nylon 12 Database directly relates to the America Makes Technology Roadmap, which identifies measurable and meaningful challenges that, when met, promote inquiry, knowledge-sharing, and technical advancements across the AM industry. The Nylon 12 Database aligns to the Material Property Characterization critical technology element (CTE) under the Material swim lane of the Technology Roadmap. The Material swim lane focuses on the documentation of empirically based material characterization studies that correlate “as-built” specimen properties to raw material/powder characteristics aimed at improving the understanding of material-process-microstructure dependencies and generation of benchmark design allowable datasets.

“There’s no question of the tremendous value that the first vetted and certified Nylon 12 Database will bring to the America Makes membership community and the AM industry at large, but specifically to aerospace,” says America Makes Technology Director John Wilczynski. “The Nylon 12 Database directly fills an identified and important need within the Material swim lane of the America Makes Technology Roadmap. It will infinitely expand what is known about Nylon 12 as a material and increase the accessibility and use of it within the AM supply chain. For the aerospace sector to gain the confidence in a material like Nylon 12 through proven design data and the ability to use it on a much wider scale is huge.”

Sources: Press materials received from the company.