LIFT to lead new "Critical Materials Processing" program on ceramics, CMC

LIFT High Bay, part of its Future Manufacturing Technology Showcase and Sandbox in Detroit. Source | LIFT 

LIFT (Detroit, Mich., U.S.) is the Department of Defense-supported National Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Innovation Institute, a nonprofit, public-private partnership between industry, academia and government that supports the U.S. economy and enhances its national security by accelerating innovative advanced manufacturing technology and talent development.

LIFT has been awarded a contract to accelerate the development of ceramic- based materials for use in industrial and defense applications. This 4-year, $9 million “Critical Materials Processing” program, which was supported by U.S. Senator Gary Peters in the FY2024 federal budget through the Department of Defense’s Industrial base Analysis and Sustainment program, will advance the state of technology and readiness for ceramics, ceramic matrix composites (CMC) and ultra-high temperature (UHT) materials.

“We risk both our economic and national security when we depend on foreign adversaries like China for materials that are vital to our manufacturing and defense industries,” says Senator Peters, who recently reintroduced the Intergovernmental Critical Minerals Taskforce Act. “We must use our partners like LIFT to accelerate the development and production of these materials here at home. Doing so will help create jobs while ensuring our manufacturers have reliable access to these important materials.”

The project’s technical approach is multifaceted, and includes a working group of experts from government, including the Air Force Research Lab and industry — including Exothermics, Kratos SRE and Materials Research & Design (MR&D) — and academia to pursue technology advancements to scale initiatives, such as solid-state ceramic batteries, as well as to onshore and scale technologies associated with carbon fiber, a precursor material for defense-related protection systems that often use CMC and that are in severely limited supply within the U.S.

“Ceramic-based materials hold significant promise for the technological challenges our industrial base and workforce are seeking to resolve, including withstanding extreme temperatures and other extreme environments,” says Nigel Francis, CEO and executive director, LIFT. “Despite the promise of ceramic materials and their composites, no organization exists within the U.S. to address the scale-up to commercialization of ceramic-related technology and talent initiatives. With this program, LIFT is positioned to achieve exactly those goals.”

LIFT and its partners will also investigate prototype solutions to accelerate:

• Production of UHTCMC
• Community integration and unification
• Gap analysis
• Identify modeling and simulation tools
• Cross-industry standardization.

For prototype solutions aimed at accelerating production, the use of compression molding and/or resin transfer molding (RTM), combined with high-pressure resin injection, will be a specific focus for the rapid impregnation and curing of CMC preform layups.