SBIR Phase I: Commercialization of a Novel Titanium Alloy Additive Manufacturing Process

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is based in furthering the innovation in an already innovative additive manufacturing (AM) industry. This proposal represents up to $120M in potential revenue within a ten year period in an AM process that will be orders of magnitude cheaper than competitive processes. With regards to a societal impact, additive manufacturing represents a paradigm shift in manufacturing and a significant opportunity to bring manufacturing and jobs back into this country. The economic and environmental implications of the additive manufacturing opportunity are thus incredibly vast for America and for the world. Local manufacturing has implications for both the economy and the environment. The Selectively Inhibited Sintering technology potentially represents a further refinement in accessibility to this burgeoning technological field, especially for small to medium sized companies that cannot afford the use of incredibly expensive competitive equipment. This project will implement a disruptive additive manufacturing technology. The core concept behind the Selectively Inhibited Sintering process is the prevention of selected segments of each powder layer from sintering. In the current metal process, a commercial piezoelectric print head is utilized to deposit a liquid inhibitor solution at the part boundary of each layer. Once all of the layers have been completed, the entire part is removed from the machine and bulk sintered in a conventional sintering furnace. The inhibitor at the part boundary decomposes into hard particles that retard the sintering process. The metal powder particles in this region are prevented from fusing, allowing for removal of inhibited boundary sections and revealing of the completed part. Successful completion of this project will potentially result in a paradigm shift in the future of metallic AM for hard-to-manufacture industrial parts. Targeted materials are high temperature metallic alloys such as iron, steel, or titanium which are widely used in many industries.