ASTRO America and Florida State University's InSPIRE have announced the second national 3D Printing Tech Challenge at the Military Additive Manufacturing Summit. This year's competition will focus on predicting and fixing distortion in Inconel 718, a material used in aerospace and defense parts.
After last year's successful challenge, this year’s competition asks participants to predict how a complex Inconel 718 part will distort and come up with a solution to fix it. Finalists will present their ideas to experts from the defense, aerospace, and investment fields.
The selected winners will receive USD 1,000 to help with travel and participation costs. They may also have the chance to sell their software to companies and meet with industry professionals and potential investors.
Last year, the competition focused on improving quality control in 3D metal printing and awarded Additive Assurance and Addiguru for their solutions. This year’s challenge continues to tackle important issues in turning research into practical solutions for large-scale production.
Executive Statement
According to Dr. Abdalla Nassar, Vice President and General Manager, ASTRO South, the goal is to accelerate adoption of modeling tools that make metal additive manufacturing more predictable, cost-effective, and production-ready. This competition directly supports the national imperative to scale additive manufacturing capabilities, and they are excited to provide participants the opportunity to benchmark their solutions in a real-world setting using parts of interest to the aerospace and defense community.
According to Drew Allen, Executive Director, FSU InSPIRE, they are proud to partner with ASTRO America. These challenges are key to fostering a collaborative environment that actively bridges the gap between development and production; they are nurturing an evolutionary ecosystem to rapidly advance technology into product solutions.