From Print Parameters to Predictable Performance
ICMD® Use Case: Designing Materials for Additive Manufacturing

Additive manufacturing creates new possibilities for complex components, but material must still meet demanding requirements for printability and performance. Balancing these requirements can mean costly iterations, especially when developing alloys for advanced applications.

Computational materials modeling helps engineers explore potential solutions earlier, evaluate tradeoffs, and make more informed decisions about what to test.

Connecting material design to printability

Successful additive manufacturing depends on the relationship between alloy composition, processing conditions, microstructure, and material properties.

ICMD® helps engineering teams investigate these relationships using computational materials engineering. For example, printability maps can help engineers evaluate how parameters such as laser power and scan speed influence predicted manufacturing outcomes and identify promising processing windows.

The goal isn’t to eliminate physical testing. It’s to help teams focus their efforts on the options most worth investigating.

Sunaloy: Designing for demanding requirements

QuesTek’s development of Sunaloy, a nickel-based superalloy designed for reusable rocket engines, illustrates the challenge of balancing multiple performance requirements.

Sunaloy was designed to address three demanding objectives:

• High strength for structural performance.
• Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) printability for additive manufacturing.
• Burn resistance in high-pressure oxygen environments.

Because alloy composition and microstructure influence multiple properties, improving one characteristic can introduce tradeoffs elsewhere. 

QuesTek applied its expertise using Materials by Design® technology and ICMD® materials simulation software to explore the alloy design space and optimize the material for its intended application.

Sunaloy demonstrates the value of designing materials around real-world requirements rather than relying solely on trial and error. While alloy design and print-process optimization are distinct challenges, both benefit from understanding how materials behave and what drives their performance. By enabling additive manufacturing of high-performance rocket engine components, this work helps advance the commercial space industry’s ability to deliver cost-effective launches at the pace needed to meet growing demand.

Explore the Sunaloy case study and peer-reviewed research.

Could modeling help with your materials challenge?

Computational modeling can be especially valuable when teams face competing material requirements, costly experimental iterations, or applications that push beyond established material capabilities.

ICMD® supports materials design, optimization, qualification, and troubleshooting by bringing physics-based models and materials science backed data together.