America Makes and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) have named the recipients of a project call funded by the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering, Manufacturing Technology Office (OSW ManTech), with a combined award of $2M.
The initiative, titled Artificial Intelligence for Material Allowables in Additive Manufacturing (AIM-4AM), focuses on a persistent bottleneck in additive manufacturing (AM) adoption: material qualification. Specifically, the project addresses how 17-4PH stainless steel (H1025), produced via laser powder bed fusion (LPBF), is currently tested and approved for use.
The qualification process for AM materials has traditionally relied on extensive physical testing — an approach that is both time-consuming and expensive. AIM-4AM aims to introduce machine learning (ML) to map process–structure–property relationships, identifying which tests yield the most meaningful data. The goal is to reduce redundant physical testing without sacrificing confidence in results, by assigning any reductions to defined, probabilistic risk categories.
What the Framework Aims to Deliver
If successful, the AI-driven framework would accelerate certification timelines and lower associated costs, while providing clearer, data-backed decision-making tools for production parts. Proponents say the approach could support faster deployment in both defense and civilian manufacturing contexts.
“AIM 4AM represents a critical step toward modernizing how we qualify and certify advanced materials, enabling faster, more data-driven decision making across defense and industrial applications,” said John Martin, AM Research Director at America Makes. “By applying artificial intelligence to target the highest value tests and quantify risk with greater precision, the Institute is helping to reduce uncertainty while accelerating the pathway to field-ready AM solutions.”
Award Recipients
A single team was selected to execute the project:
- Team Lead: Dyndrite
- Project Team: Mimo Technik Printed Metal, RTX Technology Research Center (RTRC)
The team will present progress reports at the America Makes Technical Review and Exchange (TRX) and other industry events throughout the program’s execution phase.
Closing the Gap Between Testing and Confidence
Previously, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) criticized the lack of repeatable process outcomes in material qualification as an impediment to 3D printing’s widespread implementation. The difficulty is structural: without a reliable model linking how a part is built to how it performs, engineers must run tests to cover uncertainty rather than resolve it. AI tools are now being developed to address this directly — identifying relationships within process and experimental data to predict outcomes for material or process configurations that have not yet been physically tested, allowing teams to focus experimentation more effectively and reach results faster.
Senvol, working with NIST, applied ML to process–structure–property relationships with the goal of achieving faster qualification for 3D printed materials in line with traditional manufacturing timelines. America Makes had previously contracted Senvol’s ML software for aerospace material qualification in the defense sector—an effort that delivered what the company described as promising results.
These earlier programs established a consistent pattern — AI does not replace physical testing, but restructures how it is prioritized. AIM-4AM follows this trajectory with a stricter accountability requirement: any reduction in testing must be tied to quantified risk, making the trade-off between speed and confidence explicit.
3D Printing Industry is inviting speakers for its 2026 Additive Manufacturing Applications (AMA) series, covering Energy, Healthcare, Automotive and Mobility, Aerospace, Space and Defense, and Software. Each online event focuses on real production deployments, qualification, and supply chain integration. Practitioners interested in contributing can complete the call for speakers form here.
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Featured image shows America Makes and NCDMM logo. Image via America Makes.
