America Makes, Ames partner to advance additive manufacturing refractory alloy development

"The promise of accelerating new material development remains significant enough to draw on the broader industry for innovative solutions."

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Hastening refractory alloy development for additive manufacturing (AM) to meet the demands of extreme applications is critical for AM advancement. This development would significantly increase the application's operating temperature, leading to improved energy efficiency, enhanced performance in power generation systems, and reduced costs. However, expediting research and development (R&D) efforts within current approaches carries risks, expenses, and time-to-market barriers. 

Nonetheless, the promise of accelerating new material development remains significant enough to draw on the broader industry for innovative solutions with America Makes and Ames National Laboratory leading the efforts. 

America Makes is comprised of members from industry, academia, government, workforce, and economic development organisations who collaborate to expedite AM adoption and enhance U.S. global manufacturing competitiveness. Founded in 2012 as the Department of Defense’s (DoD) national manufacturing innovation institute for AM, it is managed by the not-for-profit National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM).  

Drawing on evidence from its 2021 America Makes AM Alloy Development Workshop, material systems were identified across aviation, space, medical, energy, oil and gas, nuclear, and defence applications.   

Leveraging this knowledge in tandem with academic research is poised to:   

  • Create a step change in feedstock manufacturing technology and feedstock cost alongside AM product performance and price.    
  • Advance the national capability to manufacture AM feedstock materials affordably.   
  • Yield successful demonstrations of improved material performance.  
  • Expand education and workforce development opportunities.   
  • Increase the capacity to readily produce industrially relevant lot-size quantities of AM feedstocks at a pace that meets the needs of government and industry.   
  • Develop the necessary AM processing and post-processing methods to demonstrate these material systems' performance for various applications.  

As a partner, Ames, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory and renowned leader in material development, boasts over 70 years of experience, forging collaborations with Iowa State University. Its pioneering focus on early-stage alloy R&D, alongside America Makes, includes partnerships with the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). 

Exploring AM refractory alloy development opportunities and challenges  

Historically, traditional manufacturing materials have been developed based on accessibility and compatibility with a particular manufacturing process. However, this is not the case for AM. Instead, materials used in AM fusion-based processes like laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) have heavily relied on their compatibility across welding processes. To address these technological gaps, additive research primarily sought incremental improvements to alloy development to validate and examine material properties.  

Along these same lines, material processability emerged as another roadblock. Considering a material's surface condition and chemical composition can significantly impact its performance, material development and qualification may require an in-depth analysis of mechanical properties, including oxidation, wear, fatigue crack growth, and creep/stress rupture, emphasising statistical analysis.  

Today, the quest to develop metal alloys ideally suited for AM continues to unfold, but now with an even greater focus on high-temperature applications. Therefore, the acceleration of refractory alloy development for AM has become an even more critical research endeavour.  

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“Refractory alloys are becoming increasingly important due to their exceptional ability to resist heat and wear,” said Dr. Ryan Ott, Deputy Director of Material Science and Engineering at Ames. 

One of the key opportunity areas to achieve this, according to Ott, is through gas atomisation for metal additive powdered alloys. This method creates metal powders specifically for 3D printing, by breaking molten metal into tiny droplets that solidify into spherical particles. It has proven to enhance performance, reliability, and versatility while reducing costs and enabling new material and design exploration. However, challenges persist.  

“Due to their reactivity and quick solidification, creating powders with extremely high melting temperatures is not easy. Gas atomisation is a standard method, but generating small particles suitable for many AM technologies remains challenging,” Ott asserted. 

Beyond these technological challenges, the U.S.’ current supply chain vulnerabilities in raw material acquisition, combined with limited domestic technological capacity, are also concerning. Restrictions in feedstock availability and high unit costs for specific materials can significantly hinder development timelines and budgets. 

Further investment to fast-track refractory alloy development offers a compelling opportunity to elevate the U.S. industrial base and enhance competitiveness across critical applications. This dynamic partnership holds the potential to significantly expedite alloy development timelines, paving the way for more successful outcomes.

Furthermore, America Makes has identified a pressing need for comprehensive training to harness AM’s potential fully. The focus is not only on pioneering new alloys but also on refining the effectiveness of existing ones and establishing a more robust processing ecosystem for future alloys. 

“We envision these efforts will yield not only successful demonstrations of improved material performance, but also deliver statistically-based material datasets, process specifications, post-processing specifications, material specifications, techno-economic analysis, pilot scale manufacturing demonstrations, and education and workforce development opportunities,” said Brandon Ribic, Ph.D., Technology Director at America Makes.  

Have you entered this year's TCT Awards? Submissions for the 2025 edition of the industry's annual celebration of 3D printing and additive manufacturing excellence are open until January 22nd. To find out more and enter your AM technology or application, visit tctawards.com.