Description

This research opportunity, offered through the NRC Research Associateship Programs at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), focuses on advancing in-process monitoring (IPM) techniques for metals-based additive manufacturing (AM). Metals AM involves complex processes such as fusing, melting, and consolidating metal powders or precursors into 3D parts with intricate geometries and material designs. The physics underlying these processes spans multiple engineering disciplines including fluid mechanics, heat transfer, system controls, optics, metrology, and data science.

The goal is to improve the ability to observe and track the quality of metal parts during fabrication by developing and integrating novel IPM methods. These include technologies like melt pool emission thermography, spectroscopy, structured light projection, machine vision, acoustic emission, and other sensing modalities. Many of these methods are commercially available on industrial metal AM machines, and this program seeks to explore, advance, and integrate these technologies for enhanced machine, process, and part qualification.

Applicants can leverage NIST’s extensive facilities, instruments, and ongoing research, including:

• Calibration and characterization of commercial IPM instruments
• Development of instrument models linking physical measurands to signals
• Innovation in signal processing, data analysis, and visualization
• Testing new instrument types and measurement methods
• Working with various metal AM systems at NIST, such as single- and multi-laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF), laser-wire direct energy deposition (L-DED), hybrid 5-axis machining, and metal binder jetting (BJ)

This opportunity is ideal for postdoctoral researchers interested in interdisciplinary engineering challenges related to additive manufacturing quality control.