Nikon Advanced Manufacturing is partnering with America Makes to accelerate the use of metal additive manufacturing (AM) for aerospace and defence applications.
The multi-phase $2.1 million project, funded by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, Manufacturing Technology Office (OSD ManTech), will also include input from Constellium, ASTM International and 3Degrees, and will be advised by a consortium of experts from Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX, General Atomics, and Honeywell Aerospace Technologies.
Hamid Zarringhalam, CEO of Nikon Advanced Manufacturing, said, “We are committed to accelerating and scaling metal additive manufacturing for defence and aerospace applications. Manufacturers recognise AM’s tremendous potential to address gaps in the defense industrial base, particularly through high-performance materials and advanced technologies like Nikon SLM Solutions’ large-format NXG XII 600 series laser powder bed fusion systems.”
The first two phases will focus on advancing the adoption of Constellium’s Aheadd CP1 Aluminum alloy, which is thought to be well-suited to 3D printing thermal management and heat exchanger components. Nikon Advanced Manufacturing will test and validate the material via its Nikon AM Synergy business, which relaunched last year at Nikon’s Long Beach advanced manufacturing centre with a focus on metal AM for aerospace and defence. From this, Nikon will create material datasets which it says will act as a ‘crucial enabler’ for the Department of Defense and commercial aerospace applications, and will be released by the US government to qualified partners in the defence and aerospace ecosystem.
“This project focuses on basic and intermediate-level property characterisation, and we will form a collaborative Government Advisory Team with the Joint Additive Manufacturing Working Group (JAMWG) to support program direction-setting, review, and go/no-go decisions, as well as to guide the Material Property Dataset transfer into the Workbench for Additive Materials (WAM) database,” explained Dr. Behrang Poorganji, Nikon Advanced Manufacturing Vice President of Technology.
Following acquisitions of SLM Solutions and Morf3D in 2023, Nikon has continued to expand on its metal AM capabilities with the launch of a 90,000-square-foot AM Technology Center in California and Additive Manufacturing Technology Center in Japan. Furthering its commitment to aerospace and defence sectors, last year the company also recruited retired U.S. Navy Admiral Mike Mullen and introduced a DED metal 3D printer and 3D scanner combo geared specifically towards turbine blade repair applications. It also recently commenced a Sponsored Research Agreement with Advanced Powders and Coatings Inc. (AP&C) and the University of Waterloo focused on repair capabilities for high-value aerospace components using titanium alloys.
