Optomec awarded $4 million project from America Makes

Optomec, Albuquerque, N.M., has been awarded a major project from America Makes, the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute. The “Re-Born in the USA” project will focus on advancing additive manufacturing technology for the repair of aerospace metal components for the U.S. Air Force.

Specifically, the project team will use LENS 3D metal printing technology to advance a reliable, cost-effective approach to replace conventional repair processes such as manual welding. The process adds metal onto an existing substrate of almost any 3-D shape.

Optomec will lead a project team consisting of 23 partners, including aerospace industry leaders GE Aviation, Lockheed Martin, United Technologies Research Center, and Rolls-Royce, as well as a group of technical experts serving as lead contributors, including EWI, Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology, TechSolve, the Pennsylvania State University Applied Research Lab, and Concurrent Technologies Corp.

The two-year project is valued at $4 million. This is the third America Makes project awarded to Optomec this year.