RTX and America Makes Tap 6K Additive for Sustainable Metal 3D Printing R&D

Back in January, Manufacturing USA institute America Makes awarded the RTX Technology Research Center (RTRC) and the University of Arizona (UA) $1.2 million for the Environmental Additive Research for Tomorrow’s Habitat (EARTH) project. Now, 6K Additive has announced that RTRC and UA have selected the Pennsylvania company to participate in the project, as well.

The EARTH project aims to demonstrate how metal additive manufacturing (AM) can improve the sustainability of producing aerospace and defense parts with the titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V. RTRC and UA selected 6K Additive because the company’s manufacturing process can “reduce feedstock production energy by at least 75%”, with the project as a whole shooting for a 50 percent reduction in energy use for producing metal parts with AM.

In a press release, Brian Fisher, RTX’s principal investigator on the project, said, “We selected 6K Additive because of their process of converting revert and used powder into high-value, premium powder, which helps us to measure quality and carbon footprint in the same project. These advances not only make [AM] more sustainable but will drive down costs for production at scale.”

Frank Roberts, President of 6K Additive, said, “Time and again, 6K Additive continues to prove itself as having one of the market’s only tested processes to achieve new levels of sustainability and quality in a highly regulated market in aerospace and defense. And much of this success is driven by our proprietary technology for processing titanium and refractory metals at scale – powering both customers and the environment by recycling scrap streams back to premium powders.”

People in the AM industry often speak of the need for “quick wins”, a sentiment I take issue with because I think it attempts to cater to unrealistic expectations. On the other hand, I do think the AM industry needs big wins. If the AM industry can consistently demonstrate that it’s improving manufacturing sustainability, especially in the world of metal parts, that would be about as big a win for AM as it could hope for right now. Moreover, in the current business environment — with DoD fully at the forefront in terms of driving adoption — momentum could realistically get behind any project that demonstrates this potential for defense, in particular, as DoD looks to solidify its role as leader of interagency US government carbon emission reduction efforts.

It may not be as surface-level “exciting” as some of the other things happening in the industry right now, but there are countless reasons why reduced energy consumption is what AM companies should be going all in on right now, in terms of R&D. More than any other of the company’s many strengths, this is what makes 6K Additive such an important player in the US AM ecosystem.