University of Illinois Launches AM Research Center with $8M DoD Backing

The Department of Defense (DoD) has awarded $8.15 million to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to support the establishment of an additive manufacturing (AM) research center at the Grainger College of Engineering. In partnership with the US Army’s DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center (GVSC) and the Rock Island Arsenal Joint Manufacturing and Technology Center (RIA-JMTC), the new facility will emphasize research into deploying AM for large metal parts.

Including the DoD funding, the budget for the new research program will be just over $9 million. One of its centerpieces will be a demonstration site at the University of Illinois’ Research Park tech hub, home to the EnterpriseWorks startup incubator. Known for launching over 250 startups since 2001 — including Reconstruct, EarthSense, and Psyonic — the incubator has helped its companies raise more than $1.2 billion in venture capital. As part of the new initiative, the demonstrator will include two large-format printers that will be used to develop new parts and to conduct materials characterization.

Given the tracks of AM R&D that both the GVSC and RIA-JMTC have pursued most aggressively in recent years, the University of Illinois facility will pay special attention to ground vehicle components with dimensions of three feet or larger. RIA-JMTC has emerged as a leader in accelerating the maturity of friction stir welding (FSW) AM, suggesting a likely potential route for the research focus at the new hub.

In a press release about the University of Illinois’ new large-format AM research facility funded largely by DoD, Grainger Engineering mechanical science and engineering professor Bill King, who will lead the program, said, “We will conduct fundamental research on material properties and part quality, and we will have a factory demonstration facility to develop new processes and technologies. Grainger Engineering is uniquely positioned to lead this center with our expertise across multiple engineering disciplines and our proven track record of delivering working solutions.”

Echoing that sentiment, US Senator Dick Durbin said, “By supporting large metal [AM] research in collaboration with Rock Island Arsenal, this project will reduce U.S. dependence on foreign manufacturing for metals, contribute more resilient ground vehicles for the Army in the future, and create jobs for Illinoisans. I will continue to push for federal funding that supports national defense operations in our state.”

While the particular technologies at the heart of the planned research program weren’t specified, FSW AM seems probable, based on past work by RIA-JMTC. In addition to MELD Manufacturing, the Army has also awarded contracts in the last couple of years for the development of FSW AM hardware to Concurrent Technologies of Pennsylvania.

Although FSW is still quite early in the technical maturation phase compared to other AM processes, the rate of growth in R&D funding dedicated to the technique suggests that the Army and DoD have big plans for how FSW AM can be incorporated into military supply chains. Meanwhile, considering that the US automotive sector has been hit especially hard by the emerging tariff landscape, FSW could become a critical dual-use technology.

That would require quite a sustained and persistent R&D buildup, but — as is the case with the Army’s current signaling of its rapidly accelerating work on 3D printed drones — the task may be urgent enough to warrant the effort. If nothing else, the new research hub at the University of Illinois is an instructive reminder of how deeply intertwined trade war policies are with the DoD’s long-term objective to reshore its manufacturing supply chains.