Additive Manufacturing for Affordable Missile Defense

AM components are not currently being utilized to their full potential due to the following AM technological constraints: Need for understanding potential part-to-part variations in AM parts; need for AM standards for materials, processes, and quality; and need for improved process control and repeatability. SDCs AM Rapid Certification process will overcome these AM challenges and establish a universally applicable, standardized AM part certification process that will provide rapid AM process control and part acceptance, applicability to one-off and production quantities, and applicability to non-structural parts, secondary structure parts, and primary structure parts. SDC will develop the AM Rapid Certification process by leveraging existing AM techniques and establishing a work-in-progress (WIP) coupon characterization procedure, a methodology for statistical pooling with an established material database, and correlate test results to a predictive deterministic modeling technique derived specifically for AM parts. SDCs proposed AM Rapid Certification process will enable qualification of non-critical components, immediately following the Phase I, and of structural components by the completion of Phase II. SDCs AM Rapid Certification process can later be used in an AM Rapid Certification system, which will provide the full in-house capabilities to certify AM parts from the initial design stage to the production stage. Approved for Public Release | 16-MDA-8917 (15 November 16)