America Makes Opens Two New Project Calls Worth $1.75M in Funding

America Makes reports that Boeing Research and Technology has been selected as the awardee of a Directed Project Opportunity on the generation of additive material allowables for Ti-6AI-4V (GAMAT) funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Manufacturing and Industrial Base Technology Division. Driven by the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM), America Makes awarded approximately $3.0 million in funding with roughly $0.8 million in matching funds from the awarded project team for a total of roughly $3.8 million. 

Subject to the finalization of all contractual details and requirements, Boeing Research and Technology will work in conjunction with RPMI Innovations, Edison Welding Institute (EWI), Auburn University, ASTM International and the University of Texas El Paso to deliver on the objectives of the overall effort. In addition, the National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR), working on project 5511JMADD concurrently, will coordinate with and support the Boeing project team with the review and documentation of data generated as part of the GAMAT project. 

The objective of the GAMAT Directed Project Opportunity is to overcome the lack of accepted and available design data for use by engineers and designers for the approval of additive manufacturing (AM) parts. Generating the requisite data and models involves a sizeable investment of resources and time to produce statistically significant data, which requires generating test coupons under a controlled process, performing testing and analysis of the resulting data.  

“While there are some existing organizational or company-specific proprietary AM design databases, there is currently very limited industry or government-accepted standard design data for AM in the public domain,” says John Wilczynski, executive director, America Makes. “This data is needed to further shape and support the broader adoption of AM.”  

“It’s exciting to see when a project call comes full circle and our membership offers insightful and impactful proposals that ultimately have the ability to advance the dataset of the additive manufacturing ecosystem,” he says. “Our project calls are a way for membership to accelerate AM technologies and innovation in the manufacturing sector and beyond.” 

AMERICA MAKES RAPID INNOVATION CALL (RIC) 2022 

The 2022 Rapid Innovation Call focuses on the advancement of AM technologies which addresses the needs of all members. NCDMM is soliciting competitive proposals supporting the America Makes mission of promoting and accelerating the development and deployment of innovative, cost-effective, energy-efficient AM technologies to meet defense and/or commercial needs. Submitted topics are reviewed and prioritized by the America Makes Roadmap Advisory Group.  

The funding source for this call is America Makes via AFRL, with a projected value of $400,000. At least four awards are anticipated with an associated maximum federal funding of $100,000 available for each award.  

For each project, teams shall provide deliverables to appropriate AFRL transition partners and to America Makes for dissemination to members via the Digital Storefront.  

• Launch: Thursday, October 13, 2022 
• Eligibility: All participants must be America Makes members 
• TRX Industry Day at AMIIC: Tuesday, October 19, 2022 
• Submission Deadline: Friday, November 18, 2022, by 5 p.m. ET 
• Anticipated Award(s) Announcement: Friday, December 16, 2022 (up to four awards anticipated)                                    
• More information, details, and participant guidelines for the RIC Project Call can be found here. 

STEEL (HY-80) WIRE-ARC ADDITIVE HEAT TREATMENT (SWAAHT) PROJECT CALL 

The Steel (HY-80) Wire-Arc Additive Heat Treatment (SWAAHT) Project Call, worth $1.35 million in federal funding, seeks to inform and build modeling frameworks that the metal AM community can leverage when looking to optimize ferritic steel DED and post-build HT practices at scale.​  

NCDMM, AFRL, and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) are seeking responses that outline a metal AM project that aims to develop an understanding and set of tools (experimental and computational models) specific to the selection of feedstocks, AM build parameters, and post-build heat treatments applied to the DED of high-strength structural steel shapes. MIL-100S-1 DED HY-80 casting alternatives will be the targeted use case examined in this study, with the objective of achieving either optimized DED parameters and industrial scale post-build heat treatment practices for thick and thin sections, or a well-characterized matrix of limitations regarding the heat treatment response of MIL-100S-1 DED builds, including recommendations for feedstock composition modifications/changes and associated post-build heat treatment designs. 

Proposers to this project call shall detail an integrated project team (IPT) comprised of relevant subject matter experts from government, industry and academia. Expertise will span the areas of welding and physical steel metallurgy, arc welding and additive manufacturing, materials (thermodynamic/kinetics) and finite element process modeling, as well as industrial heat treatment. 

• Launch: Thursday, October 13, 2022 
• Eligibility: Lead proposers must be current America Makes members in good standing by Friday, November 18, 2022. 
• TRX Industry Day at AMIIC: Tuesday, October 19, 2022 
• Submission Deadline: Friday, December 2, 2022, by 5 p.m. Eastern time. 
• Anticipated Award(s) Announcement: Friday, December 23, 2022 

More information, details, and participant guidelines for the SWAAT Project Call can be found here. 

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

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