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The agency has awarded $1.6m in funding to researchers at Texas A&M University for a programme called Surge (Structures Uniquely Resolved to Guarantee Endurance) that will develop a system for assessing 3D-printed components used by the military.
It has been difficult for the military and other critical industries to adopt additive manufacturing because each 3D-printed part has unique features and defects, even when made on the same machine and from the same feedstock.
It is hoped that this new approach will allow critical parts to be made more quickly and accelerate the roll-out of additive manufacturing at Department of Defense bases in the US, as well as saving millions of dollars.
“This is an exciting moment for the additive manufacturing field, a community that increasingly recognises the urgent need to accelerate the qualification of 3D-printed parts,” said Dr Mosen Taheri Andani, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Texas A&M and a member of the grant team. “By integrating in situ data with the underlying microstructural features formed during printing, the programme will bridge expertise in process monitoring, microstructure characterisation and property evaluation – paving the way for faster, more reliable deployment of additive-manufactured parts.”
The researchers will begin the project by developing a sensor package that can be installed on to a commercial additive-manufacturing machine to monitor the printing process in real time. After that, they will develop an AI-driven, high-resolution defect-detection system that can read and combine data from multiple sources. Texas A&M researchers will collaborate with a team from the University of Michigan and the companies AlphaStar and ASTM International to predict microstructural features that may be generated during the process.
“This Darpa project is particularly exciting for us because it represents a unique opportunity to address one of the most critical challenges facing the field today. We are confident that this work will have a transformative impact on industry and help unlock the full potential of additive manufacturing at scale,” said Ibrahim Karaman, head of the department of materials science and engineering.
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