Auburn University’s National Center for Additive Manufacturing Excellence (NCAME) is accelerating research in metal additive manufacturing through partnerships with Australian-based metal AM specialist Amaero and American shipbuilder Austal USA. These collaborations aim to rapidly test advanced aerospace powders, such as Nb-C103 and Ti-6Al-4V, while developing reliable material data for naval shipbuilding. By leveraging NCAME’s end-to-end capabilities, the partnerships deliver critical insights in weeks rather than months.
High-Throughput Testing with Amaero
Through its collaboration with Amaero, NCAME is evaluating high-cost, high-performance powders like Nb-C103 using a high-throughput approach that quickly generates insights into process-structure-property relationships while minimizing material usage.
With costs up to $4,000 per kilogram, Nb-C103 is both expensive and challenging to test in research settings. “We’ve developed a high-throughput, iterative process development approach allowing Amaero to provide NCAME with minimal material and get a quick picture of the process-structure-property relationships. The target is for us to be able to turn this around in a matter of weeks so that the next iteration isn’t slowed by the need to send samples out to multiple laboratories. The enabler here is that NCAME has the full fabrication to the data value chain within our control, enabling us to expedite the printing, testing and characterization to meet the needs of the AM industry,” said NCAME research engineer Scot Carpenter.
The ability to rapidly generate data is critical for broader adoption of additive manufacturing. “Additive manufacturing offers many solutions to our nation’s industrial capacity but this can be diminished by having to engage multiple specialized laboratories to fully evaluate the process-structure-property relationships,” said Nima Shamsaei, Phillips WestPoint Distinguished Professor and Director of NCAME. “This partnership specifically leverages NCAME’s expertise and capabilities to provide answers within weeks, as opposed to months or years if outsourced.”
Supporting Defense and Maritime Applications
NCAME is also working with Austal USA to address long lead times for forged or cast parts, which can take one to two years for low-volume orders. Additive manufacturing offers a near-term solution while enabling more complex designs and, in some cases, improved mechanical performance.
“The ultimate goal of this project is to establish the correlation between in-situ sensing data and the resulting defect/micro-structure,” said Connor Headley, research engineer for Austal USA. “We’re assisting Austal USA in building up material allowables” — the stress and strain limits for a material — “which are statistically derived data sets of mechanical properties for materials of interest,” Carpenter said.
NCAME’s Broader Role in Advanced AM
These partnerships build on NCAME’s ongoing work in advancing metal additive manufacturing for aerospace and defense. In 2025, U.S.-based 3D printer manufacturer Velo3D announced progress in qualifying C103 niobium and Ti-6Al-4V powders produced by Amaero, following successful testing milestones conducted by NCAME.
Similarly, NCAME has collaborated with Blue Origin to improve the use of copper in 3D printing. As part of the effort, Blue Origin donated EOS M290 printers designed to address copper’s unique challenges. “Blue Origin recently donated two EOS M290 to NCAME to help improve the use of copper in additive manufacturing,” said Shamsaei.
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Featured image shows Refractory Powders. Photo via Amaero.
