Ship Vibration Mitigation for Additive Manufacturing Equipment

The overall goal of this STTR Phase II project is to develop a process to mitigate the effects of high frequency vibrations for a shipboard material extrusion additive manufacturing (AM) system.Ā NAVSEA has begun to install advanced AM equipment onboard ships to achieve two overarching naval AM Goals: Increase Readiness/Sustainment and Enhance Warfighter Capabilities.Ā However, the performance of the equipment and quality of fabricated parts is impacted by shipboard motions and vibrations which limit printing applications, especially for highly critical applications.Ā Advanced Technology and Research Corporation (ATR) has teamed with Michigan Technological University (MTU) to develop a model-based Vibration Mitigation System (VMS) to support the Navy to overcome this challenge and bring the AM capability to ships.Ā The Phase II project will allow the Team to develop a full-size prototype and perform laboratory and shipboard testing to gradually mature the VMS technology to reach Technology Reediness Level (TRL) 6/7.