General Atomics Leads $5.5M Effort to Qualify Aerospace-Grade Aluminum for 3D Printing

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems will lead a $5.5 million project to generate the material allowables needed to certify high-strength aluminum parts made with laser powder bed fusion. The effort, called GOTHAAM, targets a 7075-T73 equivalent alloy tested across small, medium, and large-format LPBF printers. That is the missing piece holding metal additive manufacturing back from high-volume aerospace production.

Why 7075 aluminum matters

7075 aluminum is one of the strongest alloys available for aircraft structures. It has been the backbone of military airframes for decades. Additive manufacturers have printed 7075 feedstock, but the material property data required for certification does not yet exist. Without that data, OEMs cannot use LPBF aluminum in flight-critical parts. GOTHAAM aims to fill that gap by producing statistically valid datasets across three machine size classes.

What the project covers

Phase 0 establishes a Process Control Document and baseline feedstock requirements. Phase 1 uses that baseline to generate MMPDS-compliant C- and D-Basis allowables. The testing program covers mechanical properties, intergranular corrosion sensitivity, stress-corrosion cracking, and fatigue crack growth rates. The project spans small, medium, and large multi-laser LPBF systems to prove performance holds regardless of printer size.

The partner list

America Makes and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining selected General Atomics from a competitive field. Partners include Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Airbus Space and Defense, Nikon AM, EOS, Dyndrite, Hadrian Additive, and several others. Dyndrite's SASSQUATCH process control software will manage laser assignment, toolpath zoning, and stitching variables across platforms to improve cross-machine consistency.

The qualification bottleneck

Qualification remains the single largest barrier to metal AM scaling. Changing a machine, site, or parameter set currently triggers a full requalification cycle. GOTHAAM explicitly tests whether software-controlled process variables can reduce that burden by demonstrating machine-to-machine equivalency. If the project delivers on that promise, it could cut years off the qualification timeline for LPBF aluminum.

Commercial and defense impact

The Department of War's Manufacturing Technology Office is funding the project through America Makes. The data generated is intended to support both defense platforms and commercial aerospace programs. High-strength, corrosion-resistant aluminum printed at scale would reduce part weight and lead times for everything from satellite brackets to fuselage fittings. The project builds on earlier America Makes programs that produced material allowables for titanium AM.