SBIR Phase I: An Affordable Metal Additive Manufacturing Machine

SBIR一期项目旨在解决与金属增材制造（AM）相关的技术采用的两个最大障碍-成本和数量。目前的金属增材制造平台使用昂贵的核心部件和消耗性材料，在高价格的机器上生产99.9%的致密零件。拟议的项目引入了一种性能较低、价格合理的不锈钢增材制造技术，该技术将能够满足绝大多数客户对工业级不锈钢零件的需求。由于与当前技术相关的高成本，绝大多数市场根本无法利用增材制造的好处。该方案重新审视了新型金属增材制造系统所需的材料性能、机器成本和可靠性要求。该提案的目标是让大约5万多家美国制造商利用增材制造的优势，在竞争激烈、高度全球化的制造业中赢得竞争。此外，提议发明的低成本机器允许金属增材制造的前所未有的可扩展性，使小型制造商能够与大型企业集团的资源竞争。这项研究对许多行业都有广泛的影响，并被认为从根本上促进了美国制造业的增长和繁荣。拟议的项目重新审视了目前可用的商用金属增材制造机器对高科技、高成本核心部件的需求。通过对基于喷墨打印头的粘合剂喷射工艺的创新解构，创造了一种生产金属最终用途部件的方法。所提出的工艺是基于两种低成本和成熟技术的新组合。用这种新方法创建一个坚固的原型是一个极具挑战性的，多方面的项目，涉及材料科学的关键进展，通过开发与新工艺兼容的新型粘合剂系统，以及对成品部件的材料性能进行基本评估和改进。此外，为了达到制造合作伙伴所要求的严格公差，重新设计烧结周期和开发软件预测算法来预测收缩特性将是需要克服的核心挑战。因此，这些挑战需要紧密的跨学科合作才能取得有意义的成果。所提出的研究的最终目标是制造具有足够结构完整性的粉末冶金零件，以满足工业最终用途的要求。

This SBIR Phase I Project aims to tackle the two greatest barriers to technology adoption associated with metal additive manufacturing (AM) - cost and quantities. Current metal AM platforms use expensive core components and consumable materials in high-priced machines that produce 99.9% dense parts. The proposed project introduces a lower performance, affordable stainless steel additive manufacturing technology that will be capable of satisfying the vast majority of customer needs for industrial grade stainless steel parts. The vast majority of the market simply cannot afford to take advantage of AM benefits due to the high costs associated with current technologies. This proposal re-examines the material performance, machine cost and reliability requirements necessary for a novel metal AM system. The goal of the proposal is to allow an estimated 50,000+ American manufacturers to capitalize on the benefits of AM and compete to win in an ultra-competitive, highly globalized manufacturing industry. Furthermore, the proposed invention of a low-cost machine allows for unprecedented scalability in metal AM, allowing smaller manufacturers to compete with the resources of large conglomerates. This research has broad implications in many industries and is considered to be fundamentally enabling for the growth and prosperity of American manufacturing.The proposed project re-examines the need for high technology, high cost core components in currently available commercial metallic AM machines. Through an innovative deconstruction of the inkjet print head-based, binder jetting process, a method for producing metal end-use parts has been created. The proposed process is based on a novel combination of two low cost and established technologies. The creation of a robust prototype with this novel method is a highly challenging, multi-faceted project involving key advances in materials science through the development of a novel binder system compatible with the new process as well as a fundamental evaluation and improvement of material properties of the as-built parts. In addition, re-designed sintering cycles and development of software prediction algorithms to anticipate shrinkage characteristics will be core challenges to overcome in order to achieve the tight tolerances manufacturing partners require. As such, these challenges will require tight cross-disciplinary collaboration for a meaningful outcome. The ultimate goal of the proposed research is to fabricate powder metallurgy parts of adequate structural integrity to satisfy industrial end-use requirements.