Cross Institute Collaboration Project

The Collaboration Project Team will develop a secure communication framework enabling virtual verification and validation of parts across additive manufacturing (AM) types and platforms. This includes universal data, types of sensors available per machine, sampling rate, and interdependence data.

Project Awarded:

August 1, 2022

Project Number:

21-30-01

Project Lead

LIFT

Project Participants

America Makes
EWI
PDA
Questek
SAG GS

Problem

Generating, identifying, prioritizing, disseminating, reusing, and qualifying AM data is challenging and time consuming. Expertise gaps generally limit the domestic manufacturing supply chain’s ability to swiftly solve such problems.

Proposed Solution

The Collaboration Project Team is proposing an initial step (first-year activity only) in a multiyear initiative to address these challenges using a multifaceted, industry-focused approach. Areas to be covered include data sharing, security, identifying and prioritizing data types, establishing minimum data standards for reuse, and part-qualification processes.

Impact

This project will help leverage AM technologies and processes to quickly identify, prioritize, and communicate essential information needed to manufacture parts. Also, developing a secure framework to capture the right data may allow organizations to qualify structural parts for use straight from the manufacturing process without the need for non-destructive or lot acceptance testing. This project is sponsored by the Department of the Navy Office of Naval Research under ONR award number N00014-22-1-2451.