SBIR Phase I: An Affordable Metal Additive Manufacturing Machine

This SBIR Phase I 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 introduces a lower performance, affordable stainless steel additive manufacturing technology that will be capable of satisfying the vast majority of customer needs for industrial grade stainless steel parts. The vast majority of the market simply cannot afford to take advantage of AM benefits due to the high costs associated with current technologies. This proposal re-examines the material performance, machine cost and reliability requirements necessary for a novel metal AM system. The goal of the proposal is to allow an estimated 50,000+ American manufacturers to capitalize on the benefits of AM and compete to win in an ultra-competitive, highly globalized manufacturing industry. Furthermore, the proposed invention of a low-cost machine allows for unprecedented scalability in metal AM, allowing smaller manufacturers to compete with the resources of large conglomerates. This research has broad implications in many industries and is considered to 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 proposed process is based on a novel combination of two low cost and 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 through 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, re-designed sintering cycles and development of software prediction algorithms to anticipate shrinkage characteristics will be core challenges to overcome in order to achieve the tight tolerances manufacturing partners require. As such, these challenges will require tight cross-disciplinary collaboration for a meaningful outcome. The ultimate goal of the proposed research is to fabricate powder metallurgy parts of adequate structural integrity to satisfy industrial end-use requirements.