May 2024 Volume 6

EQUIPMENT & TECHNOLOGY

The work on the front end is all done in modeling and simulation with a planned workflow on exactly how to move the workpiece, how much pressure and deformation to apply, and exactly how to manage heat and temperature in the workpiece. With that process, not only is it safer for the workforce, but the process is also repeat able time and time again with fewer human errors. LIFT has already demonstrated this process successfully with one of its large aerospace partners. The LIFT technology team and its ecosystem partners were able to develop ICME models to simu late large deformations up to 900%, which has traditionally been unheard-of. LIFT then helped this manufacturer validate and cali brate these ICME models, comparing them to the physical results obtained in real forgings made at LIFT’s headquarters in Detroit.

nents to an appropriate yield stress for forging applications. There are now commercial entities working to scale this technology in France, Uzbekistan, and stateside in Colorado, yielding the power of the sun to produce steel and other alloys with zero emissions. In fact, it’s quite ironic that we consider this a contemporary tech nology when the likes of Archimedes identified and deployed it by account of the Siege of Syracuse 213-212 B.C. Just like some luxury cruise ships are “rediscovering” the power of the sail, albeit by another name, we should recognize that many of our ideas aren’t all that novel, and we should pay the efforts and developments of past the proper respect they deserve. The new shiny thing may not always be all of what we think it is… As a nonprofit, public-private partnership, and DoD-supported insti tute, LIFT’s role is to accelerate technology so it can be put into the hands of industry and the Department of Defense as quickly as possible. That also means that while some of these developing processes are proprietary to individual companies, the LIFT team is developing internal knowledge so it can be “democratized” and available to the broader industry. LIFT has also recently launched a six-year program with the Depart ment of Defense to design, develop, and implement software solutions enabling first-time manufacturing quality for large steel castings and forgings, as well as prediction of material performance for defense applications by using entirely virtual means. This program will result in a platform to share data and computational models across orga nizations, providing highly accurate, location-specific predictions of microstructure properties of steel castings and forgings. The ability to improve material development & manufacturing lifecycle reduces lead time for complex cast and forged components, as well as cost and time to market for developmental steel castings and forgings. It is true that humans have been heating metals and bending them into shapes for millennia, but everything old can indeed be new again, if we take the time to recognize their value and pair them with new technologies. John Keogh Senior Director Technology, Manufacturing Engineering LIFT LIFT, operated by the American Lightweight Materials Manufacturing Innovation Institute, is the Detroit-based, public-private partnership between the Department of Defense, industry, and academia, committed to the development and deployment of advanced manufacturing technologies, and implementing talent develop ment initiatives to better prepare the workforce today and in the future. LIFT is funded in part by the Department of Defense with management through the Office of Naval Research. Visit www.lift.technology or follow on LinkedIn at LIFT or on Twitter @NewsFromLIFT to learn more.

LIFT Headquarters Detroit, MI

In another example that augments the traditional with the contem porary, LIFT and several of its ecosystem partners have developed a novel, inorganically bound media for sand castings. This material does not off-gas like phenolic or other organically bound media, enabling thinner walled castings with less impurities and porosity in the cast components. Further, this material is reuseable, recyclable, and can be deployed at the point of need. This technology is well suited to producing additively manufactured sand molds, leveraging the benefits of the geometric complexity offered by additive manufacturing, while holding the comfort of the properties obtained by traditional casting processes. And, with appropriately clean and homogenous melts, these inorganically bound additively manufactured sand molds can be used to cast forging preforms, to be taken into further manipulations and prop erty improvements often imparted by forging processes. Lastly, and although LIFT has yet to couple into this part of the industrial base, it is important to note the coming wave of solar furnace technology for steel melting, recycling, and heating. For example, the incident solar radiation on Earth’s surface is ~1kW/m2, so it really doesn’t take much of a subtended area, focused appro priately, to melt the likes of steel and beyond, or to heat compo

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