$6M PADAM 2.0 Program Aims to Make Refractory Alloys Work in Additive Manufacturing

America Makes and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining have awarded $6 million to four project teams under the Powder Alloy Development for Additive Manufacturing 2.0 program. The funding, from the Air Force Research Laboratory's Foundational Technologies Directorate, targets the stubborn gaps that keep refractory alloys from entering defense production at scale.

Refractory alloys can handle temperatures where standard titanium and nickel superalloys soften. That makes them attractive for jet engines, hypersonics, and rocket nozzles. Additive manufacturing could produce complex cooling channels and lightweight structures that traditional machining cannot. But the materials have not moved into regular production. Incomplete property data, process variability, and expensive, fragmented supply chains have kept them in the lab.

PADAM 2.0 splits its budget across three topics. Topic 1 focuses on existing refractory alloy systems and received up to $2 million per award, funding two teams. Lockheed Martin leads one team with Quadrus Corporation, Colorado School of Mines, and 3Degrees. HRL Laboratories leads the other with Boeing, Amaero, Alloyed, and Texas A&M University. Topic 2, targeting novel or emerging alloy systems, awarded up to $1.7 million to ATI Materials, which will work with Boeing and the University of Dayton Research Institute. Topic 3 received $300,000 for a supply chain assessment, with Colorado School of Mines mapping the path from raw mineral extraction to a qualified finished part.

Boeing appears as a partner on both materials teams without leading either. Colorado School of Mines also holds dual roles, as a subcontractor under Lockheed Martin and as the sole lead for the supply chain work.

John Martin, Additive Manufacturing Research Director at America Makes, said the program is about moving refractory alloys from promise to practice. He said the outcomes will strengthen domestic manufacturing capability, lower barriers to qualification, and deliver more reliable high-temperature materials for the Department of War and warfighter applications.

The scale of the challenge is clear. Elmet Technologies spent eight years developing 3D printing parameters for C103, a niobium-based refractory alloy, on a single 3D Systems machine platform before targeting production this year. That timeline covered one alloy on one printer type.

Auburn University's National Center for Additive Manufacturing Excellence has reported that C103 powder can cost up to $4,000 per kilogram. Process control and powder reuse become central questions when material costs run that high.

The four awardees have roughly two years to deliver. Their work will generate application-relevant data, improve process understanding, and produce supply chain risk assessments. Whether that timeline is enough to push even one alloy through qualification remains an open question. But the program represents one of the largest coordinated efforts to date aimed at making refractory additive manufacturing a production reality.