Agenda
1300-1305: Welcome – Steve McKee (OSD-MR) Presentation
1305-1309: Administrative Notes – Debbie Lilu (NCMS)
1309-1330: Advances in Additive Manufacturing – Mark Benedict (AFRL) Presentation
1330-1350: AM Aboard Vessels and other New Capabilities – Shaun Verrinder (NAVSEA Afloat AM R&D Lead)
1350-1405: Evaluating and Vetting AM technology for Implementation – Tim Eden (PSU) Presentation
1405-1425: Current (Polymer/Innovation Lab) & Future (Metallic) AM Capabilities, Equipment, and Applications – Randall Lewis & Jamaine Clemmons (FRC-E) Presentation
1425-1440: Rapid Large-Scale AM Prototype (RLAMP) – Rob Carter
1440-1455: Inspire Simulation Driven Design – (Altair/Army)
1450-1500: Wrap-Up – Steve McKee (OSD-MR) Presentation
Minutes
Event: On 28 September 2021, the Joint Technology Exchange Group (JTEG), in coordination with the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS), hosted a virtual forum on “New Additive Manufacturing Capabilities”.
Purpose: The purpose of this forum was to discuss new AM capabilities being demonstrated or having the potential to be used in support of DoD sustainment operations. Presentations included an overview of an evaluation and vetting process, as well as descriptions of new AM technology from both DoD organizations and industry.
Welcome: Ray Langlais (OSD-MR) welcomed everyone to the forum and previewed the agenda. He introduced Steve McKee as the new Director, Enterprise Maintenance Technology and the OSD JTEG Principal. Steve emphasized the impact of additive manufacturing in support of DoD sustainment operations and the importance of joint collaboration to develop AM technology solutions.
Administrative: This was an open forum. The presentations, along with questions and answers, were conducted through Adobe Connect. Two of the presentations were available online during the forum at the JTEG website: https://jteg.ncms.org/ Efforts continue to get all the presentations cleared to post. A separate audio line was used. We had 118 participants from across DOD, industry, and academia join in the forum.
Advances in Additive Manufacturing – Mark Benedict (AFRL) provided an AFRL AM MANTECH overview which included a discussion of “Operational Concept: Bending the Risk Curve for Additive Manufacturing” which explained the steps and roles of adopting and transitioning technology and how changes are needed when applied to rapid technology innovation and refresh. AFRL’s goal is to “print as big as we need, as small as we can, with the confidence to fly, at a cost that is competitive.” Mark also discussed several recent AM projects to include FlexSpecs, hybrid AM air cooler, and an SBIR “Essentium Strategic Finance Increase”.
AM Aboard Vessels and other New Capabilities – Shaun Verrinder (NAVSEA Afloat AM R&D Lead) provided the Afloat Advanced Manufacturing Strategy and the results to date to include eight Surface Ship Installations, three sub kits delivered, and 50+ sailors trained. He talked about continuing R&D efforts to increase AM capabilities in metal, polymer, and the lab, and described the hybrid metal AM system. The finished with a description of work being conducted on vibration and motion testing of polymer AM.
Evaluating and Vetting AM technology for implementation – Tim Eden (PSU) discussed the evaluation process for using AM technologies for out of production or long lead time parts, opportunity for improved performance, or reducing the number of individual components. He discussed what to consider (cost, performance, schedule), and then described the ARL/PSU approach on selecting AM technologies to include implementation path and requirements. He talked about addressing metal AM challenges and the requirements for producing critical metallic components by AM, and described a concept for qualification of AM processes.
Current (Polymer/Innovation Lab) & Future (Metallic) AM Capabilities, Equipment, and Applications – Randall Lewis and Jamaine Clemmons (FRC-E) discussed the impact of AM on maintenance repair and overhaul organizations to include the ability for engineering to rapidly respond to emerging depot production issues, decreasing turnaround times and cost for engineering support of depot operations. The also stated that AM allows Fleet Support Team Organization engineering to rapidly produce low-cost prototype components, and develop components intended to be produced by the fleet. They discussed the Engineering Innovation Lab’s role as the primary prototyping location. Lastly, they described upcoming capabilities in metallic AM to include laser – powder bed fusion, directed energy disposition, and FRC-E application spaces.
Rapid Large-Scale Additive Manufacturing Prototype (RLAMP) – Rob Carter provided a description of a next generation system that incorporates new technologies into a large format AM platform. The RLAMP is fully integrated and includes nine laser systems, a vacuum chamber, heated build plate, swappable build bin, co-axial melt pool monitoring, and metrology wells with DSLR cameras for high resolution views of the powder bed, mounted on a rail system with automated cooling and powder extraction. He discussed part consolidation advantage, provided a build rate example, and described current RLAMP feedstock.
Inspire Simulation Driven Design – (Altair/Army) discussed their GVSC DFAM work flow management tool that manages data and data flow through a model based design approach that accelerates part qualification process by:
- Framework can be re-used for the next part. Libraries can be created for like parts.
- Automates the current “manual” process allowing parallel simulations to be run
- Trade space for cost, weight, performance, and manufacturing in one view will promote increased collaboration with design, print, and test communities, which tears down silos.
- Ties in model based systems engineering methodologies expand scope to include part, sub system and systems.
- Supports DOD digital engineering principles (model based, single source of truth, collaboration etc.)
- Traceability is established from mission needs to part requirements with impact of change assessments conducted within minutes.
The tool includes dashboards that assist to guide project management through project, task and data management.
Q&A – A Q&A occurred after each briefer finished their presentation. Questions and answers will be posted on the JTEG website with these minutes.
Closing Comments: Steve McKee thanked the presenters and participants for their attendance and all the work being done to support the development and evaluation of new AM technology.
Action Items:
- Obtain copies of the remaining presentations once they are approved to post to a public website, and post to the JTEG website at https://jteg.ncms.org/ .
Next JTEG Meeting: The next scheduled JTEG virtual forum is 26 October 2021, 1:00 – 3:00 pm EST. The topic is “Partnering with Industry”.
POC this action is Ray Langlais, rlanglais@lmi.org, (571) 633-8019