Barnes Global Advisors Builds a Public Metal AM Materials Database for the US Navy

The Barnes Global Advisors has been contracted by Bechtel Plant Machinery, Inc. to build and manage a comprehensive additive manufacturing materials and process database. The work supports U.S. Navy nuclear propulsion and engineering design efforts, and the resulting dataset is planned for public release.

Why the database exists

Materials qualification remains the biggest bottleneck scaling metal additive manufacturing. Every new alloy and process combination needs characterization data before defense and aerospace programs will trust it for production parts. Right now, that data is scattered across suppliers, national labs, and internal company reports. Users end up characterizing the same materials repeatedly because no single standardized reference exists.

BPMI's project targets two specific alloys: 316L stainless steel and Alloy 625. The database will structure supplier-submitted data into a shared reference format. The goal is to give naval engineering programs the structural allowables they need to qualify parts without running duplicate qualification tests.

How it fits into larger defense programs

The BPMI effort mirrors the pattern set by America Makes and NCDMM. Their GOTHAAM initiative is a $5.5 million defense program qualifying high-strength aluminum alloy for laser powder bed fusion. Both programs exist because incomplete material property data blocks adoption. Both produce standardized material allowables that defense programs require before they can approve a part.

Making the BPMI dataset public extends an older model. Back in 2018, Senvol received NIST funding to apply data analysis to AM processes with the explicit goal of speeding up material qualification across U.S. industry. The difference here is scale and specificity: a focused naval use case with a committed industrial partner.

What comes next

The Barnes Global Advisors will interpret, standardize, and manage the data. BPMI will handle procurement and technical oversight. Once published, the database should reduce redundant characterization work across the naval supply chain and give smaller vendors a clearer path to qualifying their materials for defense work.

Metal AM adoption outside aviation and defense has been held back by exactly this kind of data gap. A public, structured reference for 316L and Alloy 625 won't solve every qualification problem, but it removes one of the most repeatable friction points in the process.