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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Adaptation of Metal Additive Manufacturing Processes for the International Space Station

The In-Space Manufacturing (ISM) project at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, in a partnership with the company, Made in Space, has previously investigated 3D printing of polymer materials on-orbit. In recent years, the project has begun exploring the potential for metal additive manufacturing (AM) on future space missions to reduce logistics and enable point-of-use manufacturing for sparing and repair. This presentation will provide an overview of constraints for demonstrating a manufacturing process on the International Space Station (ISS) as well as trades of available metal AM processes and their potential for in-space use. There are currently two processes in development as payloads for an ISS technology demonstration: wire+arc additive manufacturing (the Vulcan payload from Made in Space, Inc.) and bound metal deposition (the Fabrication Laboratory from Techshot, Inc). An update on both of these systems, results to date, and future development efforts will be presented. Relevant modeling work to evaluate operation of certain aspects of the processes in a microgravity environment will also be summarized.

manufacturing↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Adaptation of Metal Additive Manufacturing Processes for the International Space Station

The In-Space Manufacturing (ISM) project at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, in a partnership with the company, Made in Space, has previously investigated 3D printing of polymer materials on-orbit. In recent years, the project has begun exploring the potential for metal additive manufacturing (AM) on future space missions to reduce logistics and enable point-of-use manufacturing for sparing and repair. This paper provides an overview of constraints for demonstrating a manufacturing process on the International Space Station (ISS) as well as information on previous trades of available metal AM processes and their potential for in-space use. There are currently two processes in development as payloads for an ISS technology demonstration: wire+arc additive manufacturing (the Vulcan payload from Made in Space, Inc.) and bound metal additive manufacturing (the Fabrication Laboratory from Techshot, Inc). An update on both of these systems, key results to date, and future development efforts will be presented. Relevant modeling work, performed by NASA Ames Research Center, to evaluate operation of certain aspects of the bound metal AM process in a microgravity environment will also be summarized.

in-space manufacturing↗
DOE OSTI2025

High temperature tensile properties of H13 tool steel fabricated via binder jet additive manufacturing

H13 is one of the most used steels for hot work tooling applications like die casting. Binder jet additive manufacturing (BJAM) offers a cost-effective solution to fabricate tools with performance enhancing features like internal cooling channels. While full densification of BJAM H13 has been demonstrated in the literature, the room and high temperature tensile properties of the material, and the effect of post-process treatments like hot isostatic pressing (HIP), and heat treatment (HT) are unknown. Here we use HIP+HT to obtain a combination of ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and elongation to failure that is superior to H13 fabricated via laser powder bed fusion and wire arc additive manufacturing. HIP+HT BJAM H13 has a superior UTS (1836 MPa) compared with conventionally processed (1671 MPa) H13 but has lower plastic elongation. We report that as-sintered samples have an extensive network of continuous grain boundary (GB) carbides that contribute to brittle fracture. HIP+HT results in partial dissolution of GB carbides and formation of a fine martensitic microstructure resulting in superior tensile strength and elongation compared with as-sintered H13. We use thermo-kinetic calculations to rationalize the effects of HIP+HT on microstructure and properties.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Impact of Heat Input and Step Over Distance on Part Geometry for Multi-Bead WAAM Components

Abstract This study investigates the impact of heat input and overlap ratio or stepover distance on part geometry in wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM). In this work, an experimental approach was taken to quantify the variation in height and aspect ratio of walls at different combinations of overlap and heat input. Multi-bead walls were deposited with the overlap ratio varying from ½, ⅔, and 1 at a low, medium, and high-power set point on the welding power supply. A relationship between heat input, overlap ratio, and the resultant part geometry is established. Trials with an overlap ratio of one and low to medium heat input exhibited greater lack of fusion defects than the high heat input trials. At higher heat input levels, the as-deposited geometry was found to have less variation in height and an increase in aspect ratio compared to lower heat input trials. The aspect ratio of deposited walls ranged from approximately 1, for the low-power trial with an overlap ratio of ½, to approximately 7, for the high-power trial with an overlap ratio of 1. Additionally, the low and medium power trials with an overlap ratio of ⅔ exhibited the least height variation in the top surface for those heat input levels with an average range of 2.9 mm and 1.8 mm respectively. For the high heat input trials, an overlap ratio of 1 was observed to have the least variation in height with a standard deviation of 0.42 mm and an average range of 1.7 mm; however, lack of fusion defects were present in the top surface and the part cross section.

Hussein, Zaky↗
DOE OSTI2026

Understanding the Thermal Physics and Metallurgy of Metal Big Area Additive Manufacturing

The research goal of this EPSCoR-DOE partnership is to mitigate defects in parts made using a new type of additive manufacturing (AM) process called metal Big Area Additive Manufacturing (m-BAAM). To realize this goal, the PIs will detect and correct defects in the part as it is being printed by combining fundamental knowledge of the thermal physics and metallurgy of m-BAAM with in-process sensor data. Developed at the DOE-funded Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the m-BAAM process involves one or more robots working together to produce a part by fusing metal wire layer-by-layer using arc welding. The process can print large metal parts such as turbine blades, which is not possible using other AM processes. In addition, m-BAAM production rates are more than ten times faster than other AM processes while requiring one-tenth of the material cost. Despite their potential to become a critical force multiplier in the energy generation industry, m-BAAM parts may fail to print accurately due to retention of heat and uneven cooling. Overheating and anomalous cooling rates in turn can cause inconsistencies in the microstructure, leading to sudden failure when used in safety-critical applications. In other words, flaw formation in m-BAAM parts is governed by the thermal history – intensity and spatial distribution of heat inside the part during printing. The thermal history is a complex function of the part shape and process settings such as welding energy, path taken by the welding torch for deposition (tool path), wire feed rate, among others.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Electroslag additive manufacturing: A pathway for high throughput near net shape production

Electroslag Additive Manufacturing (ESAM), a new high-throughput additive manufacturing (AM) method that combines Electroslag Strip Cladding (ESC) and wire arc AM (WAAM) is introduced. This combination enables the high deposition rate of ESC (more than 20 kg/h with a 60 mm strip electrode) to benefit from the precise geometric control of WAAM. As a precursor to ESAM, the ESC process is investigated in an AM context independently by evaluating both direct and staggered bead-stacking strategies and analyzing the microstructural and mechanical properties of each. This is followed by an ESAM demonstration producing an annular geometry by pairing ESC with gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW), wherein GTAW is utilized to construct annular walls that are subsequently infilled via ESC. The microstructure and mechanical properties of ESC-only AM are compared with that of the ESAM method and it is shown that printed integral retaining walls do not impact the resulting mechanical properties of ESAM. Furthermore, results indicate that ESAM-produced Alloy 625 parts exhibit tensile properties on par with cast counterparts, supporting the method’s scalability to components exceeding one metric ton, and possibly making ESAM a viable future manufacturing approach for competitive production of large-scale components currently manufactured by casting and forging.

Additive manufacturing↗
DOE OSTI2025

Extending wire-arc directed energy deposition using non-gravity aligned (NGA) torch methods

For standard Additive Manufacturing (AM) processes, traditional path planning typically relies on a 2.5-dimensional approach. In wire-arc directed energy deposition (DED), commonly referred to as wire-arc additive manufacturing (WAAM), this 2.5D approach inherently limits final near net shape due to the stair-step effect and restricts the maximum overhang angle achievable without part degradation. To achieve better near net shape and part quality, a 3D planning approach that modulates the tool tip position and angle without process changes is demonstrated in components containing up to 105° of unsupported overhang. The experimental methods are validated with half and fully enclosed cylinder sections containing 90° of overhang. The non-gravity aligned methods are then applied to a commercial WAAM system for a composite tool mold demonstrator part. As a result, the methods developed in this paper enable expansion of WAAM system capabilities to parts containing large overhangs without compromising the net shape or material structure of the resulting parts and without the need for a part positioner.

Additive manufacturing↗
DOE OSTI2026

Future foundries: A convergent manufacturing platform

This article introduces the Future Foundries platform developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a first-generation research system designed to demonstrate convergent manufacturing. Convergent manufacturing brings together additive, subtractive, and transformative processes in a digitally interconnected environment to enable end-to-end production workflows. By linking traditionally discrete steps, convergent platforms accelerate production, improve repeatability, and support high-mix, low-volume manufacturing. The Future Foundries platform exemplifies this vision in practice by combining four modular, vendor-agnostic process cells that include robotic WAAM, induction heating, optical metrology, and machining, coordinated through an automated pallet handler and a ROS 2-based digital thread. This architecture provides the flexibility and scalability needed for agile production in small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises and for field deployable manufacturing. Two case studies illustrate the platform’s capabilities. The first presents an integrated workflow for fabricating, transforming, and repairing critical replacement components, showing how consolidated thermal, additive, inspection, and machining operations reduce manual part handling and streamline process flow. The second case study highlights coordinated multi-part production enabled by automated pallet logistics and multi-cell scheduling. Together, these examples showcase convergent manufacturing as a practical and scalable strategy for strengthening domestic casting and forging capacity, improving supply-chain resilience, and enabling rapid, adaptable production of mission-critical components.

Convergent manufacturing↗
DOE OSTI2026

Process control-enabled mitigation of microstructural and plastic heterogeneities in additively manufactured Grade 91 steel

Synergizing wire arc-directed energy deposition (WA-DED) additive manufacturing (AM) with particle-strengthened creep strength-enhanced ferritic (CSEF) steels enables fabrication and repair of critical power-plant components. Investigations focused on fusion-welded particle-strengthened CSEF steels, such as Grade 91 steel, have linked microstructurally heterogeneous regions—forming due to heat affected zones (HAZ)—with premature failure during elevated temperature service. Fusion-based AM, including WA-DED, likewise generates microstructurally and plastically heterogeneous regions due to spatiotemporally varying thermokinetics during deposition. However, works investigating such microstructural heterogeneities, their implications for mechanical behavior, and strategies to mitigate their formation remain scarce. This work identifies microstructurally and plastically heterogeneous regions within the WA-DED-processed Grade 91 steel. Spatial microhardness variations in the as-fabricated specimen correlate with the variation in the attributes of grain, martensitic microstructure, and precipitates across the fusion zone and HAZ. Digital image correlation-enabled tensile tests performed at 500 °C revealed pronounced deformation localization and a wave-like strain distribution, with wavelength close to the melt pool depth, indicating susceptibility of the as-fabricated components to premature creep failure. Such heterogeneity in microstructural and mechanical behavior was attributed to recurring solid-state phase transformations. Subsequently, an interlayer temperature control strategy was implemented, wherein maintaining interlayer temperature above the martensitic start temperature mitigated the heterogeneous microstructural and plastic response in the as-fabricated condition. Findings open pathways to achieving deformation-localization- and creep-resistant microstructures in WA-DED fabricated particle-strengthened CSEF steel components, reducing reliance on post-welding heat treatments—conventionally required to enhance creep resistance—and enabling on-demand, short lead-time fabrication of next-generation power-plant components.

Heat affected zones↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Advanced and Additive Manufacturing Technologies for Liquid Rocket Engine Components

Overview of advanced manufacturing and additive manufacturing development at NASA for liquid rocket engines. Presentation includes various material, process, design, and hot-fire testing developments demonstrating the use of advanced components for liquid rocket engines on launch vehicles and in-space systems.

Additive Manufacturing↗
DOE OSTI2024

Aging heat treatment design for Haynes 282 made by wire-feed additive manufacturing using high-throughput experiments and interpretable machine learning

Wire-feed additive manufacturing (WFAM) produces superalloys with complex thermal cycles and unique microstructures, often requiring optimized heat treatments. To address this challenge, we present a hybrid approach that combines high-throughput experiments, precipitation simulation, and machine learning to design effective aging conditions for the WFAM Haynes 282 superalloy. Our results demonstrate that the γ’ radius is the critical microstructural feature for strengthening Haynes 282 during post-heat treatment compared with the matrix composition and γ’ volume fraction. New aging conditions at 770°C for 50 hours and 730°C for 200 hours were discovered based on the machine learning model and were applied to enhance yield strength, bringing it on par with the wrought counterpart. This approach has significant implications for future AM alloy production, enabling more efficient and effective heat treatment design to achieve desired properties.

CALPHAD↗
DOE OSTI2025

Mechanical properties and strain localization of WA-DED printed P91 steel

This paper discusses a P91 steel block that was additively manufactured by wire arc direct energy deposition (WA-DED) followed by two types of post-process heat treatment (PPHT). Vickers microhardness and digital image correlation tensile tests were performed along the building direction. The global mechanical properties (i.e., microhardness and tensile properties) and the local mechanical responses (i.e., hardness fluctuation and strain localization) were systematically investigated. Results showed that (1) all P91 specimens showed higher strengths than American Society of Mechanical Engineers standard requirements for wrought P91 steel, (2) the as-printed P91 exhibited much higher average hardness and fluctuations than that after PPHT, (3) PPHT reduced P91 strengths but improved the ductility significantly, and (4) strain localization presented in the as-printed specimen during uniform deformation in tensile tests. The hardness fluctuation and strain localization along the building direction of the AP P91 were caused by different thermal histories received during WA-DED. The study indicated that PPHT, ideally tempering-only heat treatment, is necessary for the WA-DED printed P91 steel.

Mechanical properties↗
DOE OSTI2024

Digital bead modeling for wire-arc directed energy deposition

Prediction of 2D cross-section and full 3D geometry for stacked weld beads is critical for the outcome of wire-arc directed energy deposition (DED) parts; however, most additive path planning software packages model beads as extrusions of a rectangle. Weld beads are not rectangular, and the resulting shape is dependent upon physics effects at the moment of deposition. Physics phenomena such as the geometry of the underlying surface, the heat input of the welding mode, and the direction of gravity contribute to bead shape. Here, this paper presents a novel implicit modeling method that discretizes a 2D area or 3D volume of space into pixels or voxels and constructs fields based on these physics phenomena. The fields are combined using a weighting scheme trained on 3D scan measurements of welds and wire-arc DED prints. Pixels or voxels are added until the known amount of deposited volume has been achieved. Thereby, a strong conservation of mass principle is applied to the process. Utilizing machine learning techniques, the present model can be trained on a database of scans allowing for the representation of a wide variety of prints. Results show that this method can produce predictions with realistic bead morphology and sub-millimeter form error.

Bead geometry modeling↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Making & Breaking the Rules for DED Design

Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) is widely used to describe design activities and guidelines employed in the creation of Additively Manufactured (AM) parts. Basic design rules for widely adopted processes like Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) are relatively understood including material performance, part size constraints, self-supporting angles, overhangs, wall thicknesses, and feature resolution. Complexity is often inherent with PBF using organically inspired solutions through generative design and topology optimization software to create designs that often cannot be realized via traditional manufacturing processes. The design rules for Directed Energy Deposition (DED) are less well known, and, in some cases, the lack of understanding is likely inhibiting broader application of the various DED processes. This presentation covers key design rules for DED fusion processes and elucidates opportunities like multi-material deposition and build approaches ranging from basic features to complex large-scale parts. Complementary to the opportunistic characteristics of DfAM for DED, Manufacture for AM (MfAM) encompasses the restrictive aspects of the manufacturing lifecycle with limitations due to bead width and wall thickness, self-supporting angles, surface texture, microstructural evolution, and residual stresses. AM enabled part design must always consider the entire value chain starting with incoming feedstock (e.g. plate, wire, or powder) and progressing through the printing process, post-processing (e.g. machining, inspection), and final system assembly. Key considerations, like the tradeoffs between feature resolution and build rate, for process and part selection and economic assessments will be discussed as DED is often traded against other AM processes. After highlighting typical DED design rules, we will also show how some of those rules can be broken via use cases and part designs that span the full spectrum of DED processes with examples of various DED part designs.

Additive Manufacturing↗
DOE OSTI2026

Additive Manufacturing of Cryogenic Austenitic Steel JK2LB via Wire-Fed Directed Energy Deposition (DED) for Fusion Energy Applications

This study explores the feasibility of fabricating cryogenic austenitic steel JK2LB via both laser-based directed energy deposition (laser-DED) and arc-based directed energy deposition (arc-DED) additive manufacturing processes for potential application in fusion reactors. JK2LB, a low-nickel, high-manganese stainless steel developed for ITER, offers excellent cryogenic toughness, radiation resistance, and decay-to-clearance characteristics. Although JK2LB was originally designed to endure cyclic stresses at cryogenic temperatures in tokamaks, its low-temperature mechanical integrity and radiation tolerance also make it a promising candidate for structural components, such as the coil case/support structure in nonplanar high-temperature superconducting magnet assemblies in stellarators. Directed energy deposition (DED) additive manufacturing was selected for this study due to its capability to fabricate large structures with complex geometries. Here, to address the long lead time and high cost associated with acquiring conventional JK2LB solid wire, JK2LB powder-cored wire was developed as the feedstock material. Testing blocks were then fabricated using both wire-fed laser-DED and arc-DED processes. Microstructural and compositional analyses revealed that both DED approaches yield fully austenitic phase and columnar grain structures. Mechanical testing at room temperature revealed that both DED routes achieved yield strength and elongation comparable to those of conventionally processed JK2LB via vacuum melting, electroslag remelting, extrusion, and drawing, though ultimate tensile strength was reduced due to Mn loss and large columnar grains. As a study mainly focusing on the additive manufacturing process, this work demonstrates the potential of additive manufacturing for fusion energy applications and provides a basis for optimization and future cryogenic mechanical evaluation.

Cryogenic steel↗
DOE OSTI2024

Nuclear Structural Component Relevant Properties of Nickel-Based Alloys Produced via Additive Manufacturing

Idaho National Laboratory initiated examination of nickel-based alloys manufactured via three different additive manufacturing methods for potential applications in nuclear, high temperature structural components. The three methods analyzed included laser powder bed fusion, blown powder laser directed energy deposition, and wire-fed gas metal arc directed energy deposition. With the rapid push towards additive manufacturing, codes do not exist that definitively define what is or is not tolerable for each process and application, such as with conventional, wrought products. This report contains the initial work to understand possible manufacturing methods for high temperature alloys, and specifically, void formation, microstructure evolution, corrosion, and mechanical properties. To generate mechanical test data, specimens were tested irrespective of voids and microstructures were analyzed to better understand how to negate/improve these issues. The preliminary results showed major decreases in mechanical performance for material tested. Test specimens will continue to be produced to further improve each additive manufacturing processes, quantify void acceptance, and better understand the most suitable high temperature alloys receptive to additive manufacturing and high temperature nuclear applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS2000

Application of Rapid Prototyping and Wire Arc Spray to the Fabrication of Injection Mold Tools (MSFC Center Director's Discretionary Fund)

Rapid prototyping (RP) is a layer-by-layer-based additive manufacturing process for constructing three-dimensional representations of a computer design from a wax, plastic, or similar material. Wire arc spray (WAS) is a metal spray forming technique, which deposits thin layers of metal onto a substrate or pattern. Marshall Space Flight Center currently has both capabilities in-house, and this project proposed merging the two processes into an innovative manufacturing technique, in which intermediate injection molding tool halves were to be fabricated with RP and WAS metal forming.

Cooper, K. G.↗