July 2025

Team News

Elementum 3D and OSU CDME developing advanced copper-based materials capability for additive manufacturing of RF components under Navy STTR Phase II program

In May, Elementum 3D and The Ohio State University Center for Design and Manufacturing Excellence (OSU CDME) began work on a 2-year Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase II research contract with Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA). This Phase II program follows the company’s successful Phase I Base and Option efforts.

Additive manufacturing enables production of high-performance components that would otherwise not be feasible by traditional means. It also can offer improved costs and reliability by minimizing subcomponents that need to be brazed or joined and reducing other manual manufacturing steps.

The focus of the program is to develop broad capability for RF and electro-optical electronics including AM feedstock, process, design methodologies, and post processing. RF and microwave system components are often fabricated using labor-intensive manual processes like joining and bending (below, left), and it is believed that AM can help reduce labor costs and lead times for legacy system component replacement as well as enhance the capabilities of next generation components (below, right).

Navy Phase Ii Parts

Legacy waveguides fabricated by joining and bending (left, source: Axsera ) vs. AM-enabled waveguide with increased complexity and space efficiency (right, source: Swissto12)

This work expands on Elementum’s copper feedstock and printing capabilities to include cupronickel in addition to copper offerings with high thermal and electrical conductivity, and high operating temperature capability. In Phase I work, the team demonstrated that the developed cupronickel alloy was printable with minimal porosity across a variety of geometries, could achieve surface finish meeting stringent military specs, and was readily brazed to traditionally produced components with no gas leakage, even at ultra-high vacuum levels. Signal loss testing indicated that printed, finished waveguide devices could perform comparably to commercial off-the-shelf components. We look forward to furthering development and demonstration of full capability for end-to-end AM of high-performance copper-based components.

This material is based upon work supported by Naval Sea Systems Command under Contract No. N00024-25-C-S-T036. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Naval Sea Systems Command.

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July Newsletter

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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.