Project Announcement: Liquid Metal 3D Printing for Improved Sustainment

The US Department of Defense is partnering with industry and academia on an initiative to assess the capability of Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) Liquid Metal Printing (LMP) technology that does not require de-binding, sintering and is powder-free, with the ability to support maintenance and sustainment requirements with reliable, repeatable, and timely repairing of parts.

Participating industry partners must provide a pilot COTS printer, printer stock, and training.

Key objectives for this initiative include:

• Utilizing LMP technology to mature system parameters and perform material characterization of liquid metal printed aluminum. Material characterization of 3D printed aluminum fabricated via LMP would provide a material baseline, demonstrating the capability of the technology and how it may be used to fabricate replacement components for USMC ground platforms.
• Delivering a prototype unit of a liquid metal 3D printer and perform a factory acceptance test. The prototype must be capable of directly utilizing and performing first article and associated first article acceptance tests with the delivered COTS printer without significant alterations or modifications for existing Programs of Records.

Leveraging lessons learned in the prior two objectives to transition the knowledge by providing broad accessibility to the LMP technology to support enterprise-wide ground operations.

If you feel your organization has the technical capabilities and would like to be considered for this project, please complete the form below and upload your organization’s technical capabilities statement.

Interested Submissions Due by 8/8/2023.

We encourage the participation of Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBEs), including Minority Business Enterprises (MBEs) and Women’s Business Enterprises (WBEs).