America Makes Puts GA-ASI in Charge of $5.5M Cross-Platform Aluminum LPBF Qualification

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has won a $5.5 million America Makes contract to prove that a high-strength scandium-aluminum alloy can be qualified once and used on many different LPBF 3D printers. The program, called GOTHAAM, targets Scalmalloy, a 7075-T73-equivalent alloy that the defense industry wants for corrosion-resistant metal parts.

Why This Qualification Problem Matters

Right now, qualifying a metal alloy for additive manufacturing means tying that approval to a specific printer model, a specific set of process parameters, and a specific factory floor. Change any one of those variables and the manufacturer may have to run expensive requalification tests. That bottleneck is exactly what keeps metal AM from scaling into mass production.

GOTHAAM tries to break that link. The technical objective is to generate material allowables for Scalmalloy across three classes of LPBF systems: small, medium, and large format. The printer list includes the EOS M290 and M400/4, the Nikon SLM 280, SLM 500, and NXG/E, and the GE/Colibrium Additive M2. Six models from three OEMs.

What the Partners Actually Do

GA-ASI assembled seventeen partners to cover the full supply chain. Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Airbus Space and Defense plus AP Works represent the aerospace and defense primes. Nikon SLM Solutions and EOS America supply the machines. Valimet, Toyal America, Equispheres, AMG Aluminum, Rio Tinto, Sunrise Metals, and NioCorp handle powder and raw material. MIMO Technik, Quadrus Corporation, Hadrian Additive, and Scot Forge sit on the contract manufacturing side. Dyndrite provides the software layer.

Dyndrite's involvement signals the approach. Its SASSQUATCH methodology gives engineers programmatic control over laser assignment, toolpath zoning, stitching zones, gas-flow considerations, laser power, scan speed, and Z-height. The goal is to harmonize LPBF processes across machines so that qualification knowledge travels between printer classes instead of dying at the factory gate.

Has This Been Proven Before?

Not at the scale GOTHAAM proposes. Dyndrite is running a parallel program called Delta Qual 2.0 that develops process parameter ranges so engineers can make adjustments without triggering full requalification. GOTHAAM adds the cross-platform dimension: can the same material data work on a small EOS M290 and a large Nikon NXG/E? The answer is not yet proven.

The funding is modest by defense standards. The problem is not. If GOTHAAM delivers equivalency datasets that transfer between machine classes, it would remove one of the biggest brakes on metal AM production. That is why OSD ManTech is funding the attempt and why primes from Lockheed to Airbus are at the table.