America Makes and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) have revealed the recipients of a newly funded initiative backed by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, Manufacturing Technology Office (OSD ManTech). Totaling $1.3 million, the initiative, titled Corrosion of Additive – Tested At Component Scale (CATACS), targets one of additive manufacturing’s most persistent qualification barriers: the absence of standardized corrosion testing methods for metal AM parts destined for high-performance defense systems.
CATACS will focus specifically on two critical application areas: corrosion in high-temperature environments and corrosion in thermal management systems.
Corrosion Testing in AM Demands Attention
Additive manufacturing has drawn considerable interest from defense institutions for its ability to produce complex, tailored components at speed. Yet a fundamental obstacle persists, without broadly accepted testing protocols, qualifying and certifying metal AM parts remains difficult.
Because AM can yield material properties that diverge from those seen in conventional production, standard corrosion assessment approaches don’t always translate. CATACS is designed to address this directly, establishing and validating a structured corrosion evaluation framework at the component scale, with the broader goal of streamlining certification, strengthening manufacturing readiness, and expanding the defense industrial base’s capacity to adopt additive manufacturing at scale.
Awarded Teams and Focus Areas
Two project teams have been selected to lead research across distinct technical tracks. The first, focused on corrosion behavior in elevated temperature environments, is led by RTX Technology Research Center (RTRC).
The second addresses corrosion challenges specific to thermal management applications, with Colorado School of Mines heading a broader consortium that includes Conflux Technology, Elementum 3D, the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Oak Ridge National Laboratory, The Ohio State University, Ohio University, and Quintus Technologies.
As the program moves into its execution phase, both teams are expected to present progress updates at the America Makes Technical Review and Exchange (TRX) alongside other relevant industry events.
Removing a Qualification Barrier
Evidence of this corrosion testing gap is already accumulating in the field. For instance, Velo3D is under a U.S. Navy contract to qualify copper-nickel components, valued for seawater corrosion resistance, using its Sapphire XC system, while a subsequent agreement with Linde AMT established a dedicated, domestically sourced CuNi powder supply chain to sustain that qualification effort.
HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding recently ordered Nikon SLM Solutions‘ NXG 600E, building on an earlier Navy collaboration on the same platform centered on Copper Nickel components, an alloy selected for its corrosion resistance in marine environments, as part of broader metal AM qualification efforts.
These efforts point to the same underlying need that CATACS is now positioned to address: a validated, widely accepted framework for certifying AM parts in corrosion-critical environments.
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Featured image shows The America Makes facility in Youngstown, Ohio. Photo via America Makes
