What is AM Forward Florida?
Our AM Forward Florida; NSF Type I Engine Proposal developed by ASTRO America was awarded the NSF Engine Development Award: Advancing Additive Manufacturing Technologies (FL) in May of 2023.
AM Forward Florida is focused on serving as a pilot for the AM Forward partnership announced by President Biden in May 2022 with executives from several major U.S. corporations.
AM Forward Florida will seek to:
- Drive Innovation
- Support Local and National Economic Development
- Enable Community Investment
- Increase Job Growth Across Florida
- Attract a New Generation of Engineers and Technicians into the Workforce
- Host Participant and Stakeholder Workshops
This pilot project seeks to address the current limitations in the state’s supplier-base. Florida has the fifth lowest concentration of manufacturing jobs in the U.S.
AM FORWARD FLORIDA WILL EXPLORE REGIONALLY-BASED ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING, PURSUING BREAKTHROUGHS IN:
- Large Scale Additive Manufacturing
- Metal Alloys and Composite Materials
- Systems Engineering and Design for Additive
- Workforce Development
A range of machine-types, materials, and testing processes will be explored to ensure effective AM deployment into Florida supply chains in close proximity to company/end-users.
Industrial additive manufacturing depends on:
- Data Management
- Topology and Analytics for Design Optimization
- Build Preparation and Simulation
- In Situ Monitoring
- Qualification
- Testing
Data driven qualification approaches based on probabilistic modeling and machine learning will underpin university research.
These thrusts will involve focus on:
- end-to-end solutions
- efficient design
- automate quality methodologies
- ensure repeatability
- support scalability for large throughput
Execution of this Type I Engine Development will be critical to enabling this team to prepare for a Type II Engine proposal, making it much more informed, realistic, and attainable.