Elementum 3D’s aluminum alloy awarded first Gold Medal from AMO

On October 23, 2020, the U.S. Air Force’s inaugural Advanced Manufacturing Olympics (AMO) event Technical Challenges winners were announced. Elementum 3D was selected as the event’s first ever Gold Medalist by winning the “Material Hurdles” challenge with their A7050-RAM2 high-strength aluminum alloy!

The AMO competition, hosted by the USAF Rapid Sustainment Office (RSO), comprised 64 teams competing in five technical challenges for AMO medals and the chance to win up to $100,000. The entrants were each evaluated on their ability to solve some of the U.S. Air Force’s most significant sustainment issues. The Technical Challenges were judged by 25 subject matter experts from academia, the U.S. Military (Air Force, Army, and Navy), the Federal Aviation Administration, Ford, Amazon, and aerospace and defense companies. The four-day virtual event held October 20 through 23, 2020, was filled with compelling speakers, insightful sessions, exciting technology demos, and networking.

Elementum 3D, a developer and supplier of advanced metal additive manufacturing powders and processes, chose their new high-strength A7050-RAM2 powder to compete against eight other aluminum materials finalists in the “Material Hurdles” challenge. “We are honored to have our commercially available high-strength A7050-RAM2 aluminum alloy selected as the AM material to best meet the USAF’s challenge goal of demonstrating advances in AM aluminum material properties to address sustainment of traditionally manufactured 7075 and 7050 aluminum parts,” said Dr. Jacob Nuechterlein, President and founder of Elementum 3D.

Amo Parts W 7050 Bottle

Each team was required to accurately recreate the same 3D printed parts from an existing Technical Data Package using innovative materials and techniques, all while demonstrating accuracy, skill, completeness, ease of use, and speed of production. “We entered our A7050-RAM2 aluminum alloy to deliver on the AMO event’s initiative to obtain a material capable of being 3D printed into components for use in demanding Air Force conditions,” said Dr. Nuechterlein.

The USAF is working to adopt additively manufactured aluminums because of their potential for rapid on-demand production of high strength sustainment parts. Accomplishing this goal also facilitates reduction of component weights and reduced raw material requirements due to improved buy-to-fly ratios. By adopting AM and other forms of advanced manufacturing, the RSO can cut down on sustainment costs which make up 70 percent of the USAF budget. Elementum 3D’s printable A7050-RAM2 feedstock supports these goals by enabling efficient 3D printing of components out of a lightweight and high-strength aluminum material that also offers excellent fatigue life and stress corrosion cracking resistance.

The U.S. Air Force has a long history of fostering innovative solutions and these AM Olympics technical challenges were the latest means in generating transformative opportunities within advanced manufacturing. It sets in motion the USAF’s willingness to embrace leading edge solutions making for a more sustainable Air Force.

Congratulations to all the AMO’s Materials Hurdles Challenge medalists:

Gold: Elementum 3D, Inc. 
Silver: University of Waterloo and The Barnes Global Advisors, LLC
Bronze: Castheon, Inc.  

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Patrick Callard Chief Marketing Officer

Patrick Callard earned a B.B.A. in advertising from Western Michigan University in 1990. He provides over 30 years of experience in marketing communications, new business development and market outreach.
He has managed multiple marketing projects and budgets for a variety of services and products.

Patrick also successfully grew an IT consulting business from a two-man basement business to a profitable eight employee business in 4-years. Patrick’s daily focus is to unify customer experience, brand purpose, creative communication, and marketing technology to drive the growth of the business.

Tyler Blumenthal

Tyler Blumenthal

Sales Manager, RPM Innovations, Inc.

Tyler’s message will key on blown powder Directed Energy Deposition (L-DED) for AM and repair and why this process is being realized by industry as one of the key pillars in printing thin wall part structures and large part envelope requirements.

Shawn Allan

Shawn Allan

Vice President, Lithoz America, LLC

Shawn will reveal how Lithography-based Ceramic Manufacturing (LCM) is producing high resolution, high performance technical ceramics that can serve a wide range of applications and structural materials, such as alumina, zirconia, and silicon nitride. He will also touch on how LCM has progressed into multi-material components incorporating ceramics and metals.

Jeff Lints

Jeff Lints

Founder/CEO, Fortius Metals, Inc.

Jeff’s presentation will focus on the advances in wire DED, including welding processes for wire DED (arc, laser, and e-beam), next-generation alloys for large format metal 3D printing, and use cases that can benefit from replacing large forgings, replacing large machined billets, and producing advanced tooling — enabling next generation designs.

Dr. Jacob Nuechterlein

President/Founder Elementum 3D

Dr. Jacob Nuechterlein is the founder and president of Elementum 3D in Erie, CO. He earned his Bachelor of Engineering, Master of Science, and Doctor of Philosophy at the Colorado School of Mines. Jacob has been researching, teaching, or consulting on topics such as casting and powder metallurgy for the last 14 years. Elementum 3D’s work with powder bed laser additive manufacturing is based on these principles. In addition, is thesis work in thermodynamics and formation kinetics of metal matrix composites is directly related to all 3D printing processes.