PERMEATE: Permeability Enabled by Rapid Manufacturing for Enhanced Aerospace Technology Effectiveness

Elementum 3D and partner Dyndrite propose to combine their two commercial technologies, PermiAM and LPBF Pro, to enable additive manufacturing (AM) of highly complex and mechanically robust permeable micro-lattice regions within solid metal. Permeable or porous metal structures are useful for creating a large surface area that can be leveraged in flow control, cooling, catalysis, and other applications. PermiAM allows for implicit definition of a porous region in a computer design file that, when fabricated into a component, has highly tunable flow and pressure drop properties. This represents a major improvement over traditional sintered “wick” structures whose flow and pressure drop properties can be highly variable. A major shortcoming of the current method for defining implicit PermiAM is that porous regions are limited to relatively simple shapes with sharp borders. The goal of this SBIR effort is to leverage Dyndrite’s sophisticated laser toolpath definition tools within their LPBF Pro software to enable complex shaped PermiAM regions, gradient borders, and highly tunable, robust flow properties. Phase I will focus on integration of the PermiAM workflow within LPBF Pro and DAF end-user and customer identification. Phase II would consist of validation by physical specimen and component printing and testing and transition activities.