Colorado School of Mines to host ADAPT open house

The program focuses on new technologies to accelerate certification and qualification of 3-D printed metal parts.
The program focuses on new technologies to accelerate certification and qualification of 3-D printed metal parts. | File photo

Colorado School of Mines and the Alliance for the Development of Additive Processing Technologies (ADAPT) will host an open house at 5 p.m. Thursday in the ADAPT Advanced Characterization Center.

ADAPT is a consortium of academic, industry and government institutions that focus on new technologies to accelerate certification and qualification of 3-D printed metal parts.

During the open house, ADAPT will welcome new partners into the consortium, according to ADAPT technical director Aaron Stebner. The group has focused its research on founding industry members Faustson Tool, Lockheed Martin and Ball Aerospace & Technologies.

“We have planned this event to showcase our facilities, which are a resource that may benefit many sectors of mechanical engineering and materials science. But more importantly, we want to officially open our consortium to new members, and to highlight our ability to service the 3-D printing industry,” Stebner said.

Steber will demonstrate the abilities of the new Zeiss Xradia 520 Versa 3-D X-ray microscope, a device capable of Diffraction Contrast Tomography.

“We are the first university in the world to have bought one,” Stebner said. “The only other one in the U.S. is at the Naval Research Laboratory, and they just bought it last October. There are two other development instruments in the world — one at the University of Manchester in England and the other at Riso Kagaku Corporation in Tokyo, but neither of those were purchased.”