OU opens metals lab to test parts for Tinker Air Force Base

Nov. 29—A new University of Oklahoma owned lab opened on the north side of Norman that will improve safety outcomes at Tinker Air Force Base.

There may be nothing scarier for an engineer than to put a newly printed part on an aircraft without testing it.

In the aviation and aerospace industries, printing metal parts has become common practice, especially in Oklahoma. According to Zahed Siddique, associate dean of the Gallogly College of Engineering, Tinker Air Force Base houses many aircrafts that would not be operational without 3D-printed metal parts.

"There are a lot of legacy systems and subsystems that are 50-plus-years-old," Siddique said. "Components that are needed for some of those weapon systems don't exist anymore. There are no suppliers.

While the Air Force owns 3D printers, it has not had a streamlined process to test printed parts until it partnered with the University of Oklahoma.

The university welcomed media to preview the Sooner Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory last week, which will hold its official grand opening on Nov. 28.

The lab previewed its two GE M2 Series 5 Metal 3D printers. One prints in stainless steel, and the other titanium alloys.

The printers cost $1.3 million a piece.

In addition, the lab acquired cross-cutting equipment for destructive testing of parts, digital twin, CAD modeling, precision cutting/polishing and more.

The purpose of the lab is to test 3D-printed parts, whether for Tinker Air Force Base, or other clients.

"You cannot just print a part and put it on an aircraft, especially if it's a critical component," Siddique said. "That's where all the data processing comes into place, which makes sure it meets requirements, is safe and air worthy."

John Auld, program manager for Oklahoma Aerospace and Defense Innovation Institute, said the lab received the printers two months ago and is about to be fully operational.

"Here we are, ready to start actually generating data in this lab," Auld said. "We've already been able to start printing and start doing a little bit of destructive testing on some of the metals and start generating some preliminary data."

Chris Billings, research assistant professor, is dedicated to work in the laboratory, and he will be spearheading data gathering.

He said the lab will use artificial intelligence and machine learning to do heat, destructive and other testing to ensure parts are safe for use.

"The end goal is to integrate these technologies to deliver a product to some of our partners like the Air Force," Billings said.

He said machines will be able to design algorithms, which will allow them to change as they are printing.

"We can take data from the machines and have the algorithm say, 'Hey, I'm not sure that's really what we should have done, let's adaptively change what's being done during the printing process,'" he said.

Yingtao Liu, associate professor of mechanical engineering, will streamline the process which addresses analyzing data and looking for imperfections in 3D printing.

He works in reverse engineering, the field which uses deductive reasoning to figure out how previously made items were constructed, often giving little to no insight.

"We will provide feedback on the process. We don't work on islands, so we have a team which we work with full loop to understand the reverse engineering," Liu said.

Benjamin Sherwood, second year graduate student in mechanical engineering, works at the lab as a graduate research assistant, said the process is "cutting edge."

"That enables us to combine the best of both worlds because there are some things that you just cannot manufacture using traditional manufacturing methods, and these additive printing machines let us explore new possibilities about what we can make," he said.

Brian King covers education and politics for The Transcript. Reach him at bking@normantranscript.com.