America Makes Awards $2M to Advance AI-Based Material Qualification

• 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…

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