Researchers at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) have received a $659,970 grant from the US Department of Defense’s (DoD) Army Research Office to improve the reliability of metal 3D printing processes.
Using computational designs, the project is seeking to improve the US military’s capabilities to produce parts using additive manufacturing for critical machinery, including its aircraft.
“One of the challenges of metal AM is the difficulty of knowing with 100 percent certainty what the mechanical properties (such as stiffness and strength) are in the printed components,” said David Restrepo, Assistant Professor in UTSA’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. “It is also challenging to predict or reduce the dimensional variability of the components when compared with the design specifications.
“These challenges mean that printed parts currently cannot be…
