Breaking Barriers to Industry Adoption
Through a second CRADA, the two teams evaluated new materials for printing. Invar, for example, is a trademarked iron-nickel alloy valued in certain energy and aerospace tooling applications. The MDF and Lincoln Electric were the first to assess Invar’s thermal expansion properties in the context of WAAM. Guided by that data, Lincoln Electric began manufacturing and using Invar wire.
The two teams also began developing MedUSA. This WAAM system, housed at the MDF, uses three independent robotic arms equipped with welders.
“We’d demonstrated WAAM’s effectiveness for producing large parts in low volumes,” said Joshua Vaughan, group leader for Manufacturing Robotics and Controls at ORNL. “But key parts for energy and defense can be so huge, a single robotic arm would still take too much time.”
Adding robotic arms could increase speed and printing capabilities - if those arms could work collaboratively, without colliding. The MDF team made that possible by creating all-new, intelligent system controls. The controls are scalable, enabling future systems with even more arms.
Advancing controls has also helped streamline the process without sacrificing geometric accuracy. For example, the team innovated by leveraging information from the weld heads, eliminating the need to scan each bead of material after depositing it.
In 2024, MedUSA reached several significant milestones. First, it hit a deposition rate of 100 pounds of material per hour, a breakthrough that demonstrates its ability to produce large, high-performance metal parts at speeds that rival or surpass traditional manufacturing methods.
Second, researchers printed a complex, 900-pound mold for a hydropower impeller. This demonstrated MedUSA’s versatility: in addition to printing parts, it can also print molds for powder metallurgy-hot isostatic pressing, another promising method for manufacturing large metal parts for domestic energy applications. MedUSA also earned an R&D 100 Award.
“We’ll keep going bigger and faster,” Vaughan said. “We’ll continue adding intelligence into the system to increase user-friendliness and drive broader adoption. We also want to leverage machine learning and data analytics to cost-effectively evaluate part quality.”
“Lincoln Electric is ready to push this technology to commercialization, as we did our current system,” Flamm said.
Demonstrating Innovation in Action
Lincoln Electric Additive Solutions serves a range of industries, including transportation, energy, aerospace and defense. In 2024, Lincoln Electric was selected to support the U.S. Navy by 3D printing propulsion components weighing up to 20,000 pounds.
They also worked closely with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, or USACE, to manufacture a replacement for a damaged ship arrestor arm on the Poe Lock in Michigan. This shipping facility is vital for the U.S. economy: a six-month closure could put millions of jobs at risk and reduce U.S. gross domestic product by more than $1 trillion.
The USACE had projected an 18-month lead time for traditional manufacturing methods. Lincoln Electric fabricated the approximately 6,000-pound arrestor arm in 12 weeks, without sacrificing quality. The effort was recently recognized by the Defense Strategies Institute.
“We’ve had a lot of success,” Douglass said. “But there’s so much more to explore, like digital parts qualification, to keep expanding the market.”
“The MDF is uniquely qualified to support industry in this ongoing journey,” Flamm said.