America Makes announces the open enrollment of its first public offering of its Advanced Curriculum in Additive Design, Engineering and Manufacturing Innovation (ACADEMI) course, Metals Design for Additive Manufacturing, to both its members and non-members.

This course will be held Monday, March 5th through Friday, March 9th, 2018, at the America Makes Innovation Factory in Youngstown. This five-day, hands-on, intensive boot-camp, immersive training experience is valued at $7,999 per individual, but for this introductory public course America Makes is offering a discounted rate to both members ($5,600) and non-members ($6,600). Space is limited to the first 10 people to register. Register today.

ACADEMI is a collaboration between America Makes, The Lanterman Group, and other America Makes members to help speed the transfer of business and technical knowledge for additive manufacturing (AM) technologies to industry. ACADEMI is a comprehensive set of immersive training experiences with advanced AM curriculum, delivered in an intense, hands-on environment, integrating skills from multiple disciplines employed in Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) processes.

“We are excited to offer this Metals DfAM course as part of the ACADEMI program, and to make it available to our members and non-members alike,” said Rob Gorham, America Makes Executive Director. “There is great value in this hands-on, immersive course as participants will become key enablers in growing a stronger AM community of practice within their organizations. Because all ACADEMI courses incorporate research and development processes and techniques emerging directly from America Makes projects that are ready for implementation, the content is cutting-edge and rigorous. ACADEMI is just one of the many ways, America Makes is delivering on our mission to be a convener, coordinator, and catalyzer of people, knowledge, and projects within the AM industry.”

ACADEMI experiences are application-oriented—developed and taught by best-in-class industry and academic experts—and are DfAM-based courses with a path towards industry certification. The courses are specifically geared to companies, government organizations, and individuals needing robust AM training that cuts across disciplinary boundaries—such as materials science, mechanical engineering, and manufacturing engineering—and are developed for designers, engineers, technicians, and all other disciplines needing a true hands-on experience focused on designing and producing products ideally suited for AM.

Leading the Metals DfAM course instruction are subject matter experts from the America Makes membership community including: The Lanterman Group, Penn State University, Youngstown State University, Autodesk, and 3D Systems.

Participants in the Metals DfAM course should have two years professional experience or production-level experience with AM and traditional manufacturing technologies. Additionally, those participants with existing skills in computer-aided design (CAD), structural analysis, and basic AM knowledge will benefit the most from the intensive training experience.

The Metals DfAM course will explore advanced design with a focus on new regions of design spaces, engineering, manufacturing, and processing techniques for AM with metallic materials. In this course, participants will learn about cross-disciplinary skills employed in DfAM through a 20%, 40%, 40% approach of lecture, lab, and hands-on exposure, respectively, to:
• Design components with novel AM metal materials and manufacturing methods, using advanced AM design techniques.
• Explore AM design and processing techniques for new efficient component designs and light-weight structures.
• Quantify trade-offs between cost, performance, and durability of designs.
• Process an industry case-study through the entire DfAM workflow.
• Evaluate opportunities for AM implementation.
• Experiment with advanced AM simulation and analysis software.
• Identify critical aspects of mature AM technologies—from design through post-processing (i.e., material selection, process selection, processing parameters, post-processing).
• Review basic operations of an industrial grade, powder-bed laser platform.

Space in the Metals DfAM course is limited to 10 participants and is offered on a first-come, first-serve basis. Additional information about ACADEMI and the Metals DfAM course is available at https://americamakes.us/academi.