General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has won a $5.5 million project call from America Makes and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) to generate qualification data for a high-strength aluminum alloy used in laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) additive manufacturing. The project, called GOTHAAM (Generation Of Technical-data for High-strength Aluminum Alloy Material), will produce material allowables for a 7075-T73-equivalent alloy, a corrosion-resistant, aerospace-grade material with both defense and commercial applications.
GOTHAAM covers three classes of LPBF systems: small, medium, and large-format printers. That scope matters because material allowables, the statistically validated property data used to certify a part for flight or defense hardware, typically have to be regenerated for each machine size and vendor combination. Engineers who qualify parts for defense programs will care that this data set is designed to transfer across printer classes rather than lock allowables to a single machine.
General Atomics is leading a team that spans the AM supply chain, from prime contractors to powder producers. Partners named in the award include Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Airbus Space & Defense and its AP Works subsidiary, Hadrian Additive, Nikon AM, EOS America, Rio Tinto, and Dyndrite, among others.
"Qualifying advanced AM materials to deliver robust material data supporting durable, corrosion-resistant components for critical defense applications directly strengthens the defense industrial base," said John Martin, Additive Manufacturing Research Director at America Makes. "By delivering validated data and maturing LPBF capability, we're giving U.S. manufacturers what they need to produce reliable components for critical defense systems."
The project's backers frame the payoff as return on investment for OEMs and the organic industrial base as the 7075-T73-equivalent alloy moves toward qualified production. The team's makeup reflects the scale of that goal: it runs from prime integrators like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman through system builders EOS America and Nikon AM to raw-material supplier Rio Tinto, with Dyndrite providing the software layer connecting them.
