General Atomics Wins $5.5M America Makes Project Call for Aluminum 3D Printing Data

A single project call, a long list of partners

America Makes and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining have named General Atomics Aeronautical Systems as the winner of the $5.5 million GOTHAAM Project Call. The full name is a mouthful: Generation Of Technical-data for High-strength Aluminum Alloy Material. The goal is simpler than it sounds. The team will develop validated material allowables for a high-strength aluminum alloy that matches 7075-T73, and it must work across small, medium, and large laser powder bed fusion systems.

Why the work matters

Without published allowables, engineers cannot safely design load-bearing parts for aerospace and defense systems. The data gap is one reason aluminum 3D printing has been slower to spread than titanium or nickel alloys in critical applications. GOTHAAM is meant to close that gap by producing aerospace-grade, corrosion-resistant aluminum data that primes can use directly in design.

Who is on the team

General Atomics is leading, but the partner list is heavy. Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Airbus Space & Defense plus AP Works, MIMO Technik, Quadrus, Hadrian Additive, Nikon AM, EOS America, Valimet, Toyal America, Equispheres, AMG Aluminum, Rio Tinto, Sunrise Metals, Nio Corp, Dyndrite, and Scot Forge are all involved. That spread of OEMs, powder suppliers, software firms, and forges suggests the resulting dataset is meant to be accepted widely rather than tied to one machine or powder supplier.

What happens next

The project is funded by the Office of the Under Secretary of War Manufacturing Technology Office. If it delivers, manufacturers will have a shared baseline for 7075-class aluminum on multiple LPBF platforms. That could make it easier to qualify parts for military aircraft, drones, and space hardware without repeating the same expensive test campaigns for every printer model.