HRL Laboratories Establishes Center for Additive Materials

Center Will Focus on Breakthrough 3D Printing Technologies in Ceramics and Metallurgy

HRL Laboratories, LLC, has established a new center to accelerate the development of high-performance materials for additive manufacturing (3D printing) processes. The goal of the Center for Additive Materials is to broaden the portfolio of metals, ceramics, and polymers available for 3D printing and increase the property space accessible via additive manufacturing.

The Center’s focus areas include processing innovations to enable 3D printing of established materials, development of new metal alloys, ceramics, and polymers tailored to specific additive processes, as well as quality control and material/part qualification through in situ sensing and data analytics. With the rapid introduction of additive processes into more industries, the portfolio of materials available for 3D printing is key to success in the additive manufacturing revolution.

Additive manufacturing has transformative effects across multiple industries.  Among HRL’s process innovations are the ability to print ceramics with high-temperature resilience, as reported in their paper published in Science on January 1, 2016. Such materials are already being investigated for use in rocket engine parts and other applications.

HRL has also developed breakthrough technology in additive processing of metals as published in Nature on September 20, 2017. Although a short time ago only a few metals could be 3D printed, HRL has developed a nanofunctionalization approach that enables 3D printing of high-strength aluminum. Expansion of this technique to other alloys is being explored.

HRL is uniquely positioned for leadership in additive manufacturing science and engineering. Besides being informed by the latest technological challenges of industry and our long-term government customers, including DARPA, NASA, the US military, and the US intelligence community, HRL maintains strong ties with universities, national laboratories, and other innovative private sector companies.

For more information, visit cam.hrl.com.

HRL Laboratories, LLC, Malibu, California (hrl.com) is a corporate research-and-development laboratory owned by The Boeing Company and General Motors specializing in research into sensors and materials, information and systems sciences, applied electromagnetics, and microelectronics. HRL provides custom research and development and performs additional R&D contract services for its LLC member companies, the U.S. government, and other commercial companies.

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