Low Cost Additive Manufacturing for Cast Tooling

Small and medium engines for Air Force expendable and attritable systems demand component parts that can be delivered rapidly, affordably, and in small quantities.  For these systems it can mean an entire production run of no more than 200-250 units.  A critical factor is the tooling required to produce limited numbers of essential components, including investment castings.  The Phase I ALLTEC program demonstrated the feasibility of applying additive manufacturing technologies  to affordably produce tooling and castings with the potential to meet the requirements of limited quantity, rapidly evolving engines for expendable and attritable systems.  The purpose of the Phase II effort is to further build on and expand this demonstrated feasibility to enable longer-term production application and commercialization of these proven technologies and production capabilities.