A $1.2M award by America Makes has been granted to the ASTM Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence to help develop industry consensus on best practices and standards for materials handling and post processing. As a founding partner in the new Center of Excellence, EWI will play a critical role in the project to help advance post-processing techniques for additive manufacturing (AM).
The project team consists of the center’s current partners – EWI, Auburn University, NASA, Wichita State University’s National Institute for Aviation Research – as well as Quintus Technologies, Carpenter Technologies Corporation, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Rolls Royce Corporation, Honeywell Aerospace, GE Aviation, and Raytheon. The project aims to:
- Determine the mechanical performance debit of using as-built additively manufactured components
- Understand how this changes with application of Hot Isostatic Pressing
- Test the values by burst-testing thin wall components with narrow flow channels
- Publish standards based on these results
EWI’s contributions will be focused on characterization including powder characterization, optical surface metrology, and X-ray CT. This data will be used to understand the effects of surface roughness on the fatigue strength of additively manufactured parts.
According to EWI’s Alex Kitt, “This work demonstrates the commitment of government, industry and academia to collaborate on r esearch that will lead to the development of impactful AM standards. EWI is confident these standards will increase adoption and confidence in this cutting-edge technology, and we are excited to lend our expertise and capabilities to this joint effort.”
For more information about the ASTM AM Center of Excellence, visit www.amcoe.org.
To learn about EWI’s AM capabilities and services, click here.