Penn State leads $1.5 million 3D printed casting project
To modernize how metal components are cast for machinery and vehicles, funded by America Makes and the NCDMM
According to Penn State, a team led by mechanical engineering associate professor Guha Manogharan has received $1.5 million from America Makes and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) to modernize how metal components are cast for machinery and vehicles. The award is part of the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Manufacturing Technology Program project ‘IMPACT 3.0’, totaling $4.5 million.
Casting remains essential across defense, automotive, and industrial sectors, yet the number of US foundries has sharply declined since 2000. Manogharan said integrating additive manufacturing into casting could strengthen national manufacturing resilience.
“At Penn State, we have resources for traditional foundries… alongside strengths in additive manufacturing,” said Manogharan, who co-directs the Center for Innovative Materials Processing through Direct Digital Deposition. “This project will join these assets… greatly enhancing our capabilities for additive manufacturing-augmented casting.”
AM has been used in casting before, noted collaborator Vittaldas Prabhu, Charles and Enid Schneider Faculty Chair in Service Enterprise Engineering. But the team is taking a different route: building an optimized, deeply instrumented casting environment.
“Casting is well-established, and additive manufacturing is rapidly gaining ground, but turning a foundry into a smart, digital platform is entirely new,” Prabhu said. “Our goal is to transform casting into a connected manufacturing service that will… enable real-time insights, predictive control, and adaptive decision-making across the entire supply chain.”
Their system – Digi-FOCUS – will pair a physical foundry with a real-time ‘digital twin foundry’. The digital twin will simulate operations using data from sensors tracking printing conditions, metal temperature, and molten metal flow velocity. This feedback loop will reveal where casting processes can be improved and help overcome barriers to fully integrating additive manufacturing.
Mechanical engineering assistant professor Katie Fitzsimons said previous work in robotics will be crucial: “We’ve made recent technological advancements in robotic systems – like those in Digi-FOCUS – that can reactively learn, even in a complex system environment.”
Digi-FOCUS will support five AM methods, including sand, ceramic, polymer, wax, and foam printing, plus multiple metal processes. Adaptive robotics will automate tasks such as inspection and material handling. The final facility will be roughly 4,000 square feet, according to collaborator Robert Voigt.
The team expects the system’s efficiency to encourage industry adoption. “The system we will develop at Penn State will serve as a pilot system for future foundries,” said Craig Dubler, director of facilities for the College of Engineering.
Industry partners include Donsco, Inc., 3D Systems, Marotta Controls, Parker-Hannifin, Skuld, Element, Tethon3D, and members of Penn State’s Cast Metals Industrial Advisory Committee.
