The National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) and America Makes are proud to announce the winners of the Demonstration of Novel Methods for Effective AM Process Qualification/Re-Qualification – Delta Qualification directed project call worth $3.2M. The effort is funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).
Additive manufacturing (AM) offers the U.S. Air Force (USAF) and commercial manufacturing sectors groundbreaking opportunities with its ability to quickly produce lightweight designs. However, these benefits cannot yet be fully realized due to the time and cost associated with AM material and machine development and the generation of significant data through testing and analysis needed for qualification/re-qualification. Consequently, the agility of AM processes is hindered, making it challenging to respond to the technological advancements and shifts in the supply chain without first undergoing a costly and time-consuming re-qualification to ensure all rigorous standards for quality and safety continue to be met.
The chosen Delta Qual project teams will tackle these challenges by creating a qualified AM process that offers rapid and affordable flexibility in crucial processes, post-processing, and material feedstock variables, while efficiently validating a qualified AM material through statistical analysis.