NIST Awards Nearly $4M Toward Metals-Based Additive Manufacturing

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) awarded $3.7 million in grants to address current and future challenges to the implementation of metals-based additive manufacturing through research in metrology.

NIST awarded $3.7 million in grants to help address barriers to widespread adoption of metals-based additive manufacturing through measurement science research. Additive manufacturing typically creates parts and components by building them layer by layer, based on a 3D computer model. Most metals-based additive processes form parts by melting or sintering material in powder form. Courtesy of OlegDoroshin/Shutterstock.

“Additive manufacturing offers advantages such as reduced material waste, lower energy intensity, reduced time to market, and just-in-time production that could bolster supply chains in the U.S.,” said Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and NIST Director Laurie Locascio. “Accelerating the adoption of new measurement methods and standards will help to advance U.S. competitiveness in this important industry.”

These organizations will receive NIST Metals-Based Additive Manufacturing Grants Program funding to be spent over two years:

The Research Foundation for the State University of New York (Albany, N.Y.) — $957,706

To demonstrate an enhanced nondestructive evaluation (NDE) technique that can determine key material properties such as oxide thicknesses, splatter particle percentage, grain size, and defect detection.

Colorado School of Mines (Golden, Colo.) — $956,888

To examine new optical metrologies to enable real-time process feedback and control to achieve process-based qualification and certification of metallic parts made by additive manufacturing.

Auburn University (Auburn, Ala.) — $949,075

To establish a data-driven framework with computer vision and machine learning for the nondestructive qualification of additive manufacturing materials and parts for applications that cannot afford failures due to fatigue.

General Electric, GE Research (Niskayuna, N.Y.) — $873,999

GE Research teamed up GE Additive and the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) to establish the Intelligent Stitch Integration for Testing and Evaluation (I-SITE) program to extend existing standardized methods and build correlations between sensor response, material behavior, and mechanical properties.