Huntington Ingalls Industries
3D Systems department of defence
Corrosion Guide will explore how metal additive manufacturing can positively impact shipbuilding and munition fabrication. (Image courtesy of Huntington Ingalls Industries)
3D Systems is to develop a corrosion performance design guide for the direct metal printing of nickel alloys that could help to reduce maintenance costs in the shipbuilding industry.
The company has been awarded a contract by America Makes and the Department of Defense (DoD) and will collaborate with Newport News Shipbuilding, Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems and corrosion experts at the University of Akron. Together, the organisations will gather corrosion data and explore how additively manufactured components can be finished so as to limit deterioration caused by saltwater.
This research and development programme has been commissioned to address the U.S. Navy’s yearly $8.5 billion corrosion-specific maintenance costs. Corrosion is said to be accelerated when parts have gone through heat treatment and machining processes which causes stress and weakens the properties of the metal. Additive manufacturing offers the potential for production and delivery times to be reduced, while 3D Systems’ Direct Metal Printing (DMP) technology in particular is considered an ideal manufacturing process because of its low oxygen content and ability to produce high quality parts. It is hoped with this research and development effort, a better understanding of the corrosion of additively manufactured parts will be garnered and solutions on how to improve corrosion resistance will be found.
The partners will look to identify the specific mechanisms that cause corrosion in naval sea system platforms and high-speed weapons which are made from nickel alloys. They will support 240 tests with four different surface finishes and four different heat treatments to evaluate crevice, stress corrosion cracking and galvanic corrosion modes. Surface finish and post-build annealing time will also be varied to simulate the range of surface conditions, elemental micro-segregation and deleterious secondary phases found in deployed components.
“We believe that post-process for additively manufactured components can be designed to limit corrosion in a saltwater environment,” commented Dr Jared Blecher, Principal, Aerospace & Defence Engineering at 3D Systems. “Through our research and development efforts, corrosion rates will be quantified for additively manufactured parts, so end users will have better data for deciding when parts should be inspected or replaced. Additionally, we’ll explore the value of heat treatment to help improve the mechanical properties of the part and mitigate corrosion and ultimately cost.”
“We’re excited to partner with 3D Systems on this important effort,” added Charles Southall, Vice President of Engineering and Design for Newport News Shipbuilding. “Last year, we collaborated to qualify metal additive manufacturing technologies to build naval warships and installed 3D Systems’ DMP technology. We’re looking forward to expanding that work by developing design standards to help create more durable parts and ultimately improve the quality of our armed forces’ fleet.”
“The creation of a performance design guide by 3D Systems said its project partner will be of tremendous value to the DoD,” offered America Makes Executive Director John Wilczynski.
