Elementum 3D awarded up to $2.875 million to expand availability of product

ERIE – Elementum 3D Inc., a developer and supplier of metal additive-manufacturing advanced materials, print parameters and services, has won up to $2.875 million through America Makes, a public-private partnership for additive manufacturing technology and education.

America Makes selected Elementum 3D’s proposal aimed at qualifying its commercially available A7050-RAM2 aluminum additive manufacturing feedstock for funding under the “Proliferation of AM Materials Datasets” project call.

The program’s goal is to generate material property datasets with high statistical power for industrially relevant aluminum and nickel alloys, with a focus on accelerating the adoption of additive manufacturing in the American aerospace, automotive, defense and energy sectors. With these data sets in place, engineers can apply these materials for critical applications with an extremely low tolerance for failure, the company said in a news release.

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Heading the project, Elementum 3D will incorporate products and services from additive-manufacturing software, hardware and researchers, including Battelle, Castheon Inc., Dyndrite Corp., Eaton Corp., EOS North America, Incodema Inc., the National Institute for Aviation Research, Product Evaluation Systems Inc., the Ohio State University Center for Design and Manufacturing Excellence, and Westmoreland Mechanical Testing and Research.

“America Makes’ push to advance AM material datasets is monumental for the manufacturing industry,” Jacob Nuechterlein, Elementum 3D president and founder, said in a prepared statement. “It stimulates greater confidence in high-strength aluminum print quality and broadens the AM supply chain. We are excited to join forces with the other awardees. Together, our expansive knowledge and expertise in materials development establishes the future of AM materials.”

Manufacturers consistently express the need for access to lightweight, high-strength aluminum materials that offer excellent fatigue and stress corrosion cracking resistance for rapid on-demand components.

Elementum 3D’s printable A7050-RAM2 earned a gold medal in the first-ever Material Hurdles event at the 2020 U.S. Air Force Advanced Manufacturing Olympics.

The Office of the Undersecretary of Defense, Research and Engineering Manufacturing Technology Office and the Air Force Research Laboratory funded this project. The program is awarding Elementum 3D with project cost reimbursements up to $2.875 million. Elementum 3D and consortium partners will commit at least 50% of this amount as cost share, for a total project effort of more than $4.2 million.

Elementum was founded in 2014 as Sinter Print Inc., and in 2021 spun out Fortius Metals Inc., a Louisville-based company that produces alloys and materials for the welding industry.