Reactive Additive Manufacturing for Fourth Industrial Revolution Exploration Systems (RAMFIRE-ACO)

In partnership with Elementum 3D, the RAMFIRE ACO project seeks to help further increase performance and reduce cost by advancing novel additively manufactured (AM) aluminum materials through partnerships with commercial AM service vendors, and commercial space partners for large-scale complex rocket components and launch vehicle structures. The proposed outcome of this ACO is to advance large-scale directed energy deposition (DED) of high-strength aluminum alloys through process development, characterization, and testing and making a supply chain available for use by the broader aerospace, automotive, and other industries.

Elementum 3D has leveraged patented Reactive Additive Manufacturing (RAM) technology to develop a family of printable high-strength aluminum feedstocks for laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) additive manufacturing. These feedstocks have strengths equaling or exceeding comparable high-strength wrought aluminum alloys while also being weldable and printable, unlike the wrought aluminum alloys. These aluminum feedstocks are currently being used in the space, aerospace, and automotive industries and are paving the way for new innovative designs. Laser powder bed fusion is the most widely used additive manufacturing technique but is very limited in scale. As AM is increasingly being adopted, there is a growing need for large-scale parts using printable high-performance light-weight materials. This ACO will evolve these aluminum alloys to the large scale DED process providing significant new design opportunities for engines, launch vehicles, and habitats.