The Barnes Global Advisors (TBGA) has been contracted by Bechtel Plant Machinery, Inc. (BPMI) to support the development and management of a materials and process database for additive manufacturing (AM). The results are expected to be made public, a move intended to help align qualification efforts across the wider AM industry.

BPMI, a prime contractor for the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, is pursuing the database as part of a broader push to shorten manufacturing cycles and reduce the cost of producing certain components. 

Nathan Weiderspahn, BPMI Executive Manager for Industrial Base Management, said consistent, high-quality design property data is “essential to rapid application of AM within the maritime industrial base,” and described the database as part of a wider digital manufacturing transition aimed at speeding up delivery of additively manufactured components to the U.S. Navy.

Structuring Data From 316L and Alloy 625

The initial dataset covers 316L stainless steel and Alloy 625 coupons, produced using laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) and gas metal arc directed energy deposition (GMA-DED), two processes commonly applied in metal AM. The resulting data is meant to form a material property database supporting AM engineering design work involving these alloys.

Under the agreement, TBGA will interpret, standardize, and manage datasets submitted incrementally by AM suppliers and testing partners. The firm points to its prior work on Department of War Industrial Base Policy programs and Navy advanced manufacturing initiatives as the basis for its role, along with a track record running material test campaigns aimed at establishing consistent, repeatable data-generation practices for AM.

Christina Kurth, Business Development Director of Advanced Manufacturing at TBGA, said the firm is “proud to support the generation, analysis, and reporting of material property data that enables confident engineering use of additive manufacturing across naval applications,” calling it an opportunity to help advance AM “where it can deliver meaningful impact.”

Christina Kurth, Business Development Director of Advanced Manufacturing, TBGA. Photo via The Barnes Global Advisors.

A Broader Push to Close AM’s Material Data Gap

BPMI’s database follows the same pattern as America Makes’ GOTHAAM initiative, a $5.5 million defense program to qualify a high-strength aluminum alloy for LPBF. Like BPMI’s project, GOTHAAM exists because “its use in additive manufacturing has been held back by incomplete material property data,” and its output is a set of standardized material allowables, the structural data aircraft and defense programs require before they can qualify a part. The parallel to BPMI’s effort is direct: both sit inside the defense industrial base, producing structured, standardized material data specifically to remove a documented qualification bottleneck. 

Public materials databases built for the same purpose also have earlier precedent. As far back as 2018, Senvol, an online database of 3D printing systems and materials, received National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) funding for a project applying data analysis to AM processes, with the explicit goal of maturing material characterization to speed up qualification and increase AM adoption across US industry. BPMI’s plan to release its dataset publicly extends that same model: structuring supplier-submitted data on 316L and Alloy 625 into a shared reference rather than leaving each user to characterize the materials independently. 

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Featured image shows to support the US Navy’s Nuclear Propulsion Program, Bechtel Plant Machinery, Inc. (BPMI) has purchased a Sapphire XC printer calibrated for stainless steel 415. Photo via U.S. Department of Energy (DoE).