A New NCAMP Qualification Could Push Structural 3D Printing Into the Mainstream

For years, additive manufacturing has promised engineers more design freedom. The hard part was never printing the part; it was proving the part could fly. That is why a recent announcement about HexPEKK-100 matters more than a typical material launch. ADDMAN reports that the high-performance polymer now carries NCAMP qualification and published B-basis design allowables, giving aerospace programs a clear path to use it in structural applications.

What HexPEKK-100 Actually Is

HexPEKK-100 is a carbon-fiber-reinforced PEKK thermoplastic processed with selective laser sintering. ADDMAN, which calls itself the exclusive production source for the material, pitches it as a metal replacement: roughly half the weight of aluminum, with strong chemical resistance, thermal stability, and performance in flammability, smoke, and toxicity tests.

The material is aimed at brackets, ducting, connector housings, and other flight hardware where weight matters and conditions are harsh. In other words, parts that sit inside aircraft rather than under them.

Why NCAMP Qualification Is a Big Deal

Aerospace companies do not design from datasheets alone. They need statistically valid material allowables, which describe the properties engineers can count on during analysis. Without them, every new program has to fund its own expensive test campaign.

The National Center for Advanced Materials Performance, or NCAMP, run by Wichita State University's NIAR, maintains shared qualification databases for polymer composites and additive materials. When a material is NCAMP-qualified with published B-basis allowables, manufacturers can adopt it without starting qualification from scratch. They still must show equivalency, meaning their process produces the same properties, but the baseline data is already proven and accepted by regulators.

According to ADDMAN, HexPEKK-100 now sits in that group. The qualification package includes material specification NMS 800 Rev A and process specification NPS 89800 Rev B, both referenced on the company's site.

What This Means for the Industry

Structural polymer additive manufacturing has been stuck in a loop: great prototypes, slow adoption. The bottleneck is rarely the printer. It is the paperwork, the test data, and the confidence that a printed part will behave the same way in batch 50 as it did in batch 1.

Shared qualification data does not remove all of that work, but it lowers the cost and risk of using an additive material in production. For aerospace suppliers, that changes the business case. A material that once looked experimental starts to look like a standard option.

The broader signal is clear. As more additive materials complete NCAMP-style qualification, structural 3D printing stops being a special process and starts being just another material choice. That is the shift engineers and procurement teams have been waiting for.

The Caveats

Qualification data is not a blank check. Manufacturers still need to demonstrate equivalency on their own machines and processes. And HexPEKK-100 is not cheap or casual; it is a high-performance polymer for demanding applications. But for programs that need the design freedom of SLS and the confidence of qualified allowables, this is a useful step forward.

ADDMAN's announcement is as much about trust as it is about chemistry. In aerospace, trust is usually what takes longest to earn.