Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), co-developer of the Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) process and one of America’s leading technological research institutes, has signed a two-year research agreement with the Senvol additive manufacturing database.
In the collaboration, ORNL will use Senvol’s Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to evaluate the best processes for data collection, and apply it to quality assessment of 3D printer feedstock materials.
The “forefront of pedigreed data for additive manufacturing”
According to Ryan Dehoff, Group Leader of the Deposition Sciences and Technology Group at ORNL, “The importance of understanding the relationship between material properties, machine selection, and process parameters is critical for helping industry move from prototypes to industrial parts,” adding that “Senvol has been at the forefront of pedigreed data for additive manufacturing.”
Senvol’s 3D printing data generation pedigree has been earned independently and as a gold member of America Makes. Now the most comprehensive database of its kind, Senvol catalogs information on over 550 additive manufacturing machines and above 700 compatible materials.
Such understanding will be invaluable to additive innovations at ORNL, that have so far included fabrication of the U.S. military’s first 3D printed submarine, and 3D printed magnets that outperform convention.
Encouraging “faster deployment” of cleaner 3D technology
“Oak Ridge is renowned for having world-class expertise in additive manufacturing, and so we’re very excited to work with them on this project,” said Senvol President Annie Wang, “[the] data generated during the project will be input into Senvol’s data structure in order to perform preliminary machine learning and data analysis.”
Senvol’s SOP will help develop a computational tool that can rapidly analyze and understand new materials and how they will work with a 3D printer. Properties taken into consideration include the particulate microstucture of materials before and after print, and the input needed for processing.
Supported by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Advanced Manufacturing Office at the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) the project’s focus will be on the development of materials for clean energy products.
Wang concludes, “The results of this project will be used to complement physics based models of additive manufacturing systems and therefore lead to more rapid understanding of new materials and faster deployment of the technology.”
Never miss a story and sign up to our free newsletter here. Interact with other readers on our Facebook/Twitter, and get involved with 3D printing events near you.
Featured image: The entrance to Oak Ridge National Laboratory located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Photo via The University of Tennessee
