Home - GA-ASI Selected to Lead $5.5M LPBF Alloy Qualification Defense GA-ASI Selected to Lead $5.5M LPBF Alloy Qualification Ada Shaikhnag 3 days ago 0 America Makes has selected General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) to lead a $5.5 million program developing material allowables for a scandium-aluminum alloy across three classes of laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) 3D printers. Funded by the Office of the Under Secretary of War’s Manufacturing Technology Office (OSD ManTech), the program is called Generation Of Technical-data for High-strength Aluminum Alloy Material (GOTHAAM), and was announced earlier this year. The funding itself is modest by defense standards. But the problem it targets is not. Qualifying a metal alloy for additive manufacturing has typically meant tying qualification closely to a specific machine, set of process parameters, and production site. Change any one of those variables and the manufacturer may face additional testing or requalification, depending on the impact of the change. “Qualifying advanced AM materials to deliver robust material data supporting durable, corrosion-resistant components for critical defense applications directly strengthens the defense industrial base,” said John Martin, Additive Manufacturing Research Director at America Makes. Qualifying Alloy Across Multiple Platforms According to America Makes, GOTHAAM’s technical objective is to generate qualification data for a 7075-T73-equivalent alloy, specifically Scalmalloy, that can be established across small, medium, and large-format LPBF systems. The machines named in the program scope include the EOS M290 and M400/4, the Nikon SLM 280, SLM 500, and NXG/E, and the GE/Colibrium Additive M2. That is six 3D printer models from three different OEMs. The team GA-ASI has assembled reflects the breadth of the project. Seventeen partners span virtually every layer of the additive supply chain. Lockheed Martin , Northrop Grumman , and Airbus Space & Defense + AP Works represent the defense and aerospace primes participating in the project. Nikon SLM Solutions and EOS America are the machine builders whose platforms are included in the cross-platform qualification effort. Valimet , Toyal America , Equispheres , AMG Aluminum , Rio Tinto , Sunrise Metals , and NioCorp cover powder and raw material supply. MIMO Technik , Quadrus Corporation , Hadrian Additive , and Scot Forge sit on the contract manufacturing side. Dyndrite provides the software layer. The inclusion of Dyndrite points to a particular approach for addressing cross-platform qualification. Dyndrite has also been selected to apply its SASSQUATCH methodology under a separate America Makes initiative called Delta Qual 2.0. That program is developing methods to qualify ranges of AM process parameters for defense production so that engineers can make adjustments within those ranges without triggering complete requalification.