About

Defining the future of advanced manufacturing research and education

The Next Manufacturing Center is one of the world’s leading research centers for additive manufacturing (AM), commonly known as 3-D printing. The center leverages the engineering and data science expertise from across Carnegie Mellon University to advance additive manufacturing.

Our researchers have access to state-of-the-art equipment in our additive manufacturing laboratories on campus and at Mill 19 that enable them to develop new approaches for design optimization, materials development and characterization, process parameter selection, and parts qualification and certification.

In addition to leading cutting-edge research in these critical areas, our faculty and staff are also educating and training the next generation of AM innovators through creative, hands-on problem-solving.

Memberships

Carnegie Mellon is a member of the America Makes Manufacturing USA Institute.

Capabilities

Metals, Ceramics, Sand, and Composites

• EOS M290 Direct Metal Laser Sintering
• TRUMPF TruPrint 3000 Laser Powder Bed Fusion
• TRUMPF TruLaser Cell 3000 with TruDisk 6001 Laser Metal Deposition
• Freemelt ONE Electron Beam Powder Bed Fusion System with Backscattering Electron Detector
• ExOne Innovent+ Binder Jetting
• ExOne M-Flex Binder Jetting
• Lincoln Electric SCULPRINT RND-ADDSYS-1 Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing
• Lincoln Electric ClassMate Laser (Hot Wire)*

Electronics

• Optomec Aerosol Jet 300
• Optomec Aerosol Jet HD2*

Polymers

• Objet350 Connex Multi-Material
• Objet30 PRO Desktop
• (5) Stratasys Dimension Elite FDM
• (5) Form 2 Desktop SLA
• (11) Dremel 3D40 FLEX

Biomaterials

• Biomaterial printers are custom-built by individual labs.

Characterization/Finishing

• Freeman Tech FT4 Powder Rheometer
• Granutools GranuDrum Powder Rheometer
• (2) Keyence VR-5000/6000 Wide Area 3D Measurement System
• Keyence VL-500 Series 3D Scanner CMM
• Infinite Focus G4 with Real 3D Surface Measurement
• ZEISS Xradia Crystal CT 3D X-ray Tomography System
• (4) Shot peen (ceramic and metal shot media)   
• (2) CM Furnace
• (2) GF Machining Solutions AC Progress VP3 Wire EDM Machine

Testing

• Split-Hopkinson pressure bar for testing stress-strain of materials
• Gleeble 3500-GTC system for thermal and mechanical testing

*Will be available in 2023.

Innovating additive manufacturing

The Next Manufacturing Center research focuses on current AM processes, but also looks ahead to where additive processing will be in the future. Efforts in the Next Manufacturing Center will allow metals AM users to be able to:

1. Design the process as they design the geometry of the part
2. Monitor and control the AM process
3. Vary material microstructure and properties within a single AM part
4. Use a wide variety of metal powders
5. Eliminate or design for internal porosity
6. Apply machine vision, machine learning and other computational tools across AM
7. Develop new alloys specifically designed for AM

Next Manufacturing research has helped enable these advances, which will significantly increase build rates, reduce costs, improve properties such as fatigue resistance, allow for customization of the entire process, and, ultimately, help to increase the widespread adoption of AM.