Hrl Laboratories, LLC

The Boeing Company

Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Jacob Michael Hundley

Alan Jon Jacobsen

Tobias A Schaedler

Zak C Eckel

Sophia Shu Yang

Eric C Clough

John Hunter Martin

William B Carter

Brennan D Yahata

Christopher Stephen Roper

Julie Miller

Mark O'Masta

Scott Biesboer

Adam Franklin Gross

Nilesh D Mankame

Geoffrey P McKnight

Randall C Schubert

David Page

Kenneth Cante

Christopher Paul Henry

Jason A Graetz

Elisabeth Jane Berger

Ryan G Quarfoth

Adam E Sorensen

David W Shahan

Phuong Bui

Robert E Doty

Joanna A Kolodziejska

Tiffany A Stewart

Gwen Marie Lanphere Gross

Mark E Rogalski

Robert Mone

Andrew Lawrence Bauer

Jie Jiang

Tony Koung

Tiffany Allison Stewart

Andrew Paul Nowak

Andrew C Keefe

Ashley M Dustin

April Rose Rodriguez

Julien P Mourou

Rajesh D Rajavel

Robert W Cumberland

Sloan Patrick Smith

Steven Craig Lang

Hanif Muhammad

Thomas I Boundy

Matthew Howard Cawthorne

Darby Laplant

Jacob John Mikulsky

Kayleigh A Porter

Edward W Brouwers

Stuart J Brown

Christopher B Henry

Geoffrey P Mcknight

Jie Ensberg

Chia-Ming “Gavin” Chang

Christine M Lihn

Gavin Chang

Mark O'masta

Alicia J Dias

Alvin Escobar

Emily C Schueller

Brennon D Yahata

Scott M Biesboer

Jay C Kussmaul

Zak Charles Eckel

Mark R O'masta

Mark R O'MASTA

Chia-Ming Gavin Chang

Jenny Jiang

Some variations provide a functionalized composite material comprising: a thermoplastic polymer binder matrix disposed in a distinct volume; a plurality of discrete metal or metal alloy particles dispersed in the thermoplastic polymer matrix; and a plurality of discrete particulates assembled on surfaces of the discrete metal or metal alloy particles, wherein the discrete particulates are in contact with the thermoplastic polymer binder matrix, wherein the discrete particulates are smaller than the discrete metal or metal alloy particles in at least one dimension, and wherein the discrete particulates are compositionally different than the discrete metal or metal alloy particles. The discrete particulates may be selected and/or configured to function as a grain refiner, a sintering aid, and/or a strengthening phase, within the functionalized composite material.

Thermoplastic-encapsulated functionalized metal or metal alloy powders

A method, apparatus, system, and computer program product for manufacturing an unconsolidated composite material. Sensor data is received from a sensor system for a composite material manufacturing system, wherein the sensor data is received during manufacturing of the unconsolidated composite material by the composite material manufacturing system. A set of predicted properties is determined for a number of portions of the unconsolidated composite material as completed from manufacturing by the composite material manufacturing system using the sensor data. A quality level for the number of portions of the unconsolidated composite material is identified based on the set of predicted properties for the number of portions of the unconsolidated composite material.

Property prediction for unconsolidated composite materials

A radio frequency surface-aperture, including: a mechanical support structure configured for maintaining mechanical stiffness and strength at a selected temperature; thermal insulation having at least a single layer; one or more through-thickness waveguides located through a thickness of the mechanical support structure and thermal insulation; a cold-side mode coupler arranged to connect a designated cold side of the one or more through-thickness waveguides to an electronic subsystem device; and one or more surface-wave waveguides arranged as an RF antenna on a surface of the mechanical support structure in operative communication with the through-thickness waveguides.

High temperature RF surface aperture

Some variations provide a process for additive manufacturing of a nanofunctionalized metal alloy, comprising: providing a nanofunctionalized metal precursor containing metals and grain-refining nanoparticles; exposing a first amount of the nanofunctionalized metal precursor to an energy source for melting the precursor, thereby generating a first melt layer; solidifying the first melt layer, thereby generating a first solid layer; and repeating many times to generate a plurality of solid layers in an additive-manufacturing build direction. The additively manufactured, nanofunctionalized metal alloy has a microstructure with equiaxed grains. Other variations provide an additively manufactured, nanofunctionalized metal alloy comprising metals selected from aluminum, iron, nickel, copper, titanium, magnesium, zinc, silicon, lithium, silver, chromium, manganese, vanadium, bismuth, gallium, or lead; and grain-refining nanoparticles selected from zirconium, tantalum, niobium, titanium, or oxides, nitrides, hydrides, carbides, or borides thereof, wherein the additively manufactured, nanofunctionalized metal alloy has a microstructure with equiaxed grains.

Additive manufacturing with nanofunctionalized precursors

An apparatus and related method are disclosed for compensation of an antenna and/or an antenna array located at a surface that experiences environmental conditions. The apparatus can include: an embedded compensation and/or calibration structure configured to be interrogated by an electromagnetic wave, to dynamically compensate for surface erosion, thermal expansion, and/or dielectric constant changes of a surface scattering antenna; and a processor configured to: receive measurements of the compensation and/or calibration structure to determine beam pointing for dynamically varying surface conditions and perform sensing and/or seeking observation.

Surface antenna compensation

This disclosure provides an improvement over the state of the art by teaching a low-cost method to produce feedstock powder, without undergoing a phase change, from industrially relevant wrought alloys that are widely available at low cost. The surfaces of aspherical particles are functionalized with particulates having a different size and composition than the particles, to control the solidification response of the feedstock. Some variations provide a metal-containing functionalized material comprising: a plurality of aspherical particles comprising a metal or a metal alloy; and a plurality of metal-containing or ceramic particulates that are assembled on surfaces of the aspherical particles, wherein the particulates are compositionally different than the aspherical particles. Methods of making and using the metal-containing functionalized materials are described. The invention provides an economic advantage over traditional gas-atomized or water-atomized metal powder feedstocks for powder-based metal additive manufacturing or other powder metallurgy processes.

Functionalized aspherical powder feedstocks and methods of making the same

Some variations provide a method of making an additively manufactured single-crystal metallic component, comprising: providing a feedstock comprising a first metal or metal alloy; providing a build plate comprising a single crystal of a second metal or metal alloy; exposing the feedstock to an energy source for melting the feedstock, generating a melt layer on the build plate; and solidifying the melt layer, generating a solid layer (on the build plate) of a metal component. The solid layer is also a single crystal of the first metal or metal alloy. The method may be repeated many times to build the part. Some variations provide a single-crystal metallic component comprising a plurality of solid layers in an additive-manufacturing build direction, wherein the plurality of solid layers forms a single crystal of a metal or metal alloy with a continuous crystallographic texture. The crystal orientation may vary along the additive-manufacturing build direction.

Additively manufactured single-crystal metallic components, and methods for producing the same

Some variations provide a metal-alloy biphasic system containing a first metal Mand a second metal M, wherein a second metal phase has a melting temperature lower than that of a first metal phase, and wherein the metal-alloy biphasic system has a hierarchical microstructure containing a second length scale that is at least one order of magnitude smaller than a first length scale. Some variations provide a metal-alloy biphasic system containing a first metal Mand a second metal M, wherein a second metal phase has a melting temperature lower than that of a first metal phase, and wherein the first metal phase forms a continuous network. Other variations provide a metal-alloy biphasic powder containing at least a first metal and a second metal, wherein the solubility of first metal in second metal is less than 5%. Methods of making and using the powders and biphasic system are disclosed.

Metal-alloy biphasic systems, and powders and methods for making metal-alloy biphasic systems

Some variations provide an additively manufactured metal-containing component comprising (i) nickel, (ii) aluminum and/or titanium, and (iii) nanoparticles, wherein the sum of aluminum weight percentage and one-half of titanium weight percentage is at least 3 on a nanoparticle-free basis, and wherein the additively manufactured metal-containing component has a microstructure that is substantially crack-free with equiaxed grains. A feedstock composition is also provided, comprising metal-containing microparticles and nanoparticles, wherein the nanoparticles are chemically and/or physically disposed on surfaces of the microparticles, wherein the microparticles comprise (i) nickel and (ii) aluminum and/or titanium, and wherein the sum of aluminum weight percentage and one-half of titanium weight percentage is at least 3 on a nanoparticle-free basis. The nanoparticles may be selected from metals; ceramics; cermets; intermetallic alloys; oxides, carbides, nitrides, borides, or hydrides thereof; polymers; and/or carbon. Successful nanofunctionalization of MAR-M-247 nickel superalloy is demonstrated, creating a crack-free additively manufactured microstructure.

Additively manufacturing components containing nickel alloys, and feedstocks for producing the same

An imaging sensor package includes: an imaging sensor; and an architected substrate coupled to a bottom surface of the imaging sensor. The architected substrate has local stiffness variations along an in-plane direction of the architected substrate, and the imaging sensor and the architected substrate are curved.

Curved imaging sensor package with architected substrate

Some variations provide a leading-edge heat pipe comprising: (a) an envelope fabricated from a shell material, wherein the envelope includes at least one edge with a radius of curvature of less than 3 mm, and wherein the envelope includes, or is in thermal communication with, at least one heat-rejection surface; (b) a porous wick fabricated from a ceramic or metallic wick material, wherein the porous wick is configured within a first portion of the interior cavity, wherein at least a portion of the porous wick is adjacent to the inner surface, and wherein the porous wick has a bimodal pore distribution comprising an average capillary-pore size from 0.2 microns to 200 microns and an average high-flow pore size from 100 microns to 2 millimeters (the average high-flow pore size is greater than the average capillary-pore size); and (c) a phase-change heat-transfer material contained within the porous wick.

Method of making hypersonic leading-edge heat pipe with porous wick

A method of repairing a sandwich structure includes: removing a damaged portion of a core and a damaged portion of a first facesheet to form an open volume; filling the open volume with an ultraviolet-curable photomonomer; partially curing the ultraviolet-curable photomonomer to form a plurality of photopolymer waveguides by utilizing ultraviolet light; and arranging a replacement facesheet on the damaged portion of the first facesheet and over the photopolymer waveguides.

Method of repairing sandwich structure

Growing community of inventors

Newbury Park, CA, United States of America

Jacob Michael Hundley