SBIR Phase II: An Affordable Metal Additive Manufacturing Machine

This SBIR Phase II Project aims to tackle the two greatest barriers to technology adoption associated with metal additive manufacturing (AM) - cost and quantities. Current metal AM platforms use expensive core components and consumable materials in high-priced machines that produce 99.9% dense parts. The proposed project calls into question the performance requirements that most American manufacturers have for industrial grade stainless steel parts. While these manufacturers require high performance, they cannot currently afford to take advantage of AM benefits due to the high capital expenditure, maintenance, and operating costs associated with current commercial technologies. This proposal re-examines the material performance, machine cost and reliability requirements necessary for a novel metal AM system to satisfy most American manufacturers' needs. In developing a low-cost AM alternative, the goal of the proposal is to allow an estimated over 50,000 American manufacturers to capitalize on the benefits of AM and simultaneously compete in an ultra-competitive, highly globalized manufacturing industry. In addition, procurement for low to medium volume order quantities (1000 - 20,000 pieces) is incredibly challenging with respect to high cost and long lead times. The proposed invention of a low-cost machine allows for never seen scalability in metal AM, allowing for smaller manufacturers to scale by taking advantage of meaningful order quantities and compete with the resources of large conglomerates. This research has broad implications in many industries and could be fundamentally enabling for the growth and prosperity of American manufacturing. The proposed project re-examines the need for high technology, high cost core components in currently available commercial metallic AM machines. Through an innovative deconstruction of the inkjet print head-based, binder jetting process, a method for producing metal end-use parts has been created. The 3DEO process is based on a novel combination of two low-tech and low cost, established technologies. The creation of a robust prototype with this novel method is a highly challenging, multi-faceted project involving key advances in materials science trough the development of a novel binder system compatible with the new process as well as a fundamental evaluation and improvement of material properties of the as-built parts. In addition, completely re-designed sintering cycles and a lengthy evaluation of shrinkage characteristics will be core challenges to overcome to achieve the tight tolerances manufacturing partners require. As such, these challenges will require tight cross-disciplinary collaboration for a meaningful outcome. The goal of the proposed research is to fabricate powder metallurgy parts of adequate structural integrity to satisfy industrial end-use requirements. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.