Connecticut Company Gets Piece of $4 Million ‘Reborn in the USA’ 3D Printing Project

The Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology received a $163,000 contract to advance the usage of aerospace alloys in additive manufacturing recently.

The company will work as a subcontractor of Optomec, a company that develops additive manufacturing systems for high-performance applications in the photovoltaic, electronics, biomedical and aerospace and defense markets.

CCAT’s subcontracting work is thanks to America Makes’ awarding Optomec a $4 million dollar contract as part of the “Re-Born in the USA” project. The “Reborn in the USA” project focuses on advancing additive manufacturing technology to repair aerospace metal components for the U.S. Air Force.

The goal of the project is to create reliable, cost-effective ways to replace repair processes such as manual welding.

“CCAT is eager to collaborate with America Makes members to advance fundamental and applied knowledge in additive manufacturing and to transition that knowledge to the U.S. supply chain,” said Elliot Ginsberg, CCAT’s president.

Under the terms of its three-year contract with Optomec, CCAT will work  to fine-tune  metal powder additive manufacturing processes to improve the quality of aerospace alloy parts in areas of engineering and repairing. During this partnership, CCAT will use Optomec’s Laser Engineered Net Shaping 850R additive technology at the CCAT Advanced Manufacturing Center to help Optomec get one step closer to its task of using additive manufacturing to create lower costs, higher quality metal components.

“This is an important opportunity for CCAT to apply its assets and expertise to continue to move additive manufacturing forward,” said Dr. Tom Maloney, CCAT director of technology, research and applications.

America Makes is a national consortium of U.S. government, university and industrial manufacturing organizations. The alliance allows for collaborative projects that further implementation of advanced additive manufacturing concepts and technology. The consortium also helps develop industry workforce skills necessary to support additive manufacturing in the United States.

CCAT is an Hartford-based non-profit that works to combine expertise in cutting-edge manufacturing and information technology.

In addition to CCAT and Optomec, other “Re-Born in the USA” team members include United Technologies Research Center, GE Aviation, Edison Welding Institute, Lockheed Martin Corporation and Rolls-Royce.  Let us know your opinion on this story in the CCAT forum thread on 3DPB.com.