"This AMbition grant helps support collaboration with industry which is important as we push to accelerate metal AM adoption." said Andy Shives, PST's Additive Manufacturing Business Manager.
Zhang will collaborate with PST, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL), Argonne National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory and Changwon National University in South Korea to develop 3D printing techniques of Alloy 718, which is used to fabricate military vehicle engine components.
"Through this grant and a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with ARL, IUPUI will work closely with the team to develop a new methodology to optimize the metal AM process via combined ICME (integrated computational materials engineering) and targeted experimental validation," he explained. "The goal is to maximize the performance of AM alloys used for U.S. Department of Defense applications, in both normal operating and high strain-rate and ballistic conditions."
Dr. Brandon McWilliams, the team lead for laser based additive manufacturing at ARL, added, "The Army will benefit from this collaborative research project with academia and industry to accelerate metal additive manufacturing science transitions into technologies that enhance the capabilities of the next generation combat vehicle and increase soldier lethality."
Grant recipients will receive PST’s TruForm metal powder, along with engineering support for AM projects. TruForm is a gas atomized metal powder made specifically for 3D printing. The six universities' winning projects involve various technologies, including laser powder bed, directed energy deposition and binder jetting for AM. PST will partner with IUPUI on the analysis of microstructure effects, and to improve process parameters and part properties using PST’s wide portfolio of metal alloys.
"Using TruForm powders every day to create AM prototypes and production tooling allows us to verify our materials' capabilities day to day, lot to lot," explained Bill Jarosinski, PST's Director of R&D Materials.
"Additive manufacturing is playing a crucial role in supporting TBC tooling applications and enables more robust processing," said Dr. Vaishak Viswanathan, a leading researcher on advanced multilayered TBCs. "With the constant push for advanced TBCs, processing methodologies are starting to play an even bigger role in manufacturing than ever before."
About Praxair Surface Technologies
Praxair Surface Technologies, with 2017 sales of $617 million, offers a comprehensive array of high-performance coatings, materials, and technologies to the aviation, energy and other industries. By continuously advancing coatings technologies, Praxair Surface Technologies helps customers improve environmental performance, decrease energy consumption, extend component life, improve productivity, minimize downtime, reduce operating costs and produce high-quality products. Additional information about Praxair Surface Technologies is available at www.praxairsurfacetechnologies.com.
