Autonomous Resource Corporation (ARC) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory are to establish a strategic public-private partnership to accelerate the on-demand manufacture of qualified, mission-critical components for U.S. national security applications.
The two organisations have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
Known as the Exascale Foundry, the partnership will combine ORNL's computing and manufacturing capabilities with ARC's ARCNet distributed manufacturing platform. The aim is to create a closed-loop system for AI-enabled materials and manufacturing qualification and autonomous production at a defence-relevant scale.
ARC will deploy advanced manufacturing equipment organised into seven production nodes connected to ORNL via ARC's secure ARCNet infrastructure. ORNL will provide access to HPC expertise for simulation-driven materials characterisation and qualification, along with technologies developed at the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF), the Department of Energy's only large-scale, open-access advanced manufacturing facility. ORNL's Peregrine AI software, which has analysed over 1.9 million additive manufacturing layers, will be integrated into ARC's production nodes for real-time adaptive control and quality assurance.
"The United States faces an urgent need to rebuild its manufacturing capacity for critical defence components," said Bryan Wisk, CEO of ARC. "By combining ORNL's world-leading computational, materials science, and manufacturing capabilities with our autonomous production infrastructure, we can compress manufacturing and qualification timelines from years to months and deliver manufactured parts at the volumes the warfighter needs."
This partnership also supports DOE's Genesis Mission, a national initiative to build the world's most powerful scientific platform to accelerate discovery science, strengthen national security and drive energy innovation. ARC and ORNL's collective capabilities will help reenvision advanced manufacturing and industrial productivity, accelerate defence production and qualification, and secure critical supply chain elements.
"ORNL's advanced manufacturing and computing capabilities are uniquely positioned to help accelerate the transition of laboratory-proven technologies into production-scale defence manufacturing," offered Moe Khaleel, ORNL associate laboratory director for National Security Sciences. "Partnering with ARC ensures we are transitioning our research into real production outcomes."
The initial implementation will focus on high-temperature nickel superalloy turbine components for autonomous air vehicle engines using metal binder jetting technology, directly addressing demonstrated production bottlenecks in the U.S. defence supply chain.
ORNL Chief Manufacturing Officer Craig Blue added, "This partnership exemplifies the type of relationship necessary to build and grow domestic supply chains for our national security."
