Penn State researchers receive $535K to manufacture metal parts for naval applications

The new superfinishing lab will be installed in the Factory for Advanced Manufacturing Education Lab, a 10,000-sq.-ft. integrated high-bay laboratory for teaching and research.

Penn State researchers in University Park, Pa., have received more than $535,000 to install a state-of-the-art superfinishing lab for 3-D-printed metal parts. The new lab will complement the existing subtractive processing technology in the Factory for Advanced Manufacturing Education (FAME) Lab within the Harold and Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering.

Together the machinery will provide the subtractive processing capability necessary to transform printed parts into components ready for product assembly. The equipment in the FAME Lab will be used for both the instruction of engineering students and academic research.

Funding for the one-year project, titled “Super Finishing of Printed Metallic Parts for High Performance Naval Systems,” is being provided by the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program, which operates through the Department of Defense’s Office of Naval Research.

Ed DeMeter, a professor in the Marcus department, is the principal investigator on the project.

“The Navy has a strong interest in identifying and researching the technical issues of using 3-D-printed metal parts for naval applications now and in the future,” said DeMeter. “They want to better understand how to design parts while identifying potential barriers and also benefits that may arise between the metal printing process and any secondary processing that is done to smooth out the surface texture of these parts.”

Metal parts can be printed to near net shape but require thermal processing to improve their material properties and hard tool machining processes to remove supports and create functional surfaces, according to DeMeter.

“Superfinishing processes are used to remove burrs and to smooth surfaces. All three postprocesses are needed to produce parts for demanding national defense applications, which include jet engines and sea vessels,” he said.

Functional surfaces of the parts need to have extremely tight geometric control and a very smooth surface finish, explained DeMeter. If a part is subjected to a lot of cyclic loading (such as force and vibration) and has rough surfaces, it promotes the formation of cracks and premature failure of the parts.