Abstract
Incumbent structural alloys used in safety critical applications for many defense and commercial platforms were developed in the mid 20th century in response to demands for the reliable combination of strength and toughness. Since this materials renaissance built on the research and development infrastructure of the second world war; while the materials community has implemented many significant advances, massive sectors of industry remain risk averse, static, and Stuarts of 1960’s era materials technology.
Over the last two generations the metals supply chain has also undergone a massive shift from regional to globalized production; resulting in an 80% decrease in the number of casting houses and forge shops across much of the worlds industrialized nations. To account for the current and impending high demand with this reduced industrial base, the broad implementation of industrial automation and the tools of Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) is not simply an opportunity, but rather a necessity. While our community claims great success, and has objective reason to celebrate key milestones, the ground truth is this transition is far too slow and our government leadership is growing impatient.
In 2023 the United States Congress resourced the Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment (IBAS) Program to invest in the familiar defense topics of batteries, kinetic weapons, and microelectronics; but they also directed investments to our community in a way not done in a generation with targeted funding for critical and strategic materials, castings and forgings, and workforce development. Earlier this year the hill doubled down on the need for the materials industrial base to rapidly transition, allocating $1 Billion to a new effort to accelerate qualification and certification of advanced manufacturing methods. Our moment is here and we must rise to meet it.
This talk will provide an overview of the current state of the manufacturing supply chain, implementation case studies for the use of ICME in model set based design and screening of new materials, and future government investments to accelerate the transition of materials innovations.
Biography
Dr. Draper is currently the Deputy Director of the Innovation Capability and Modernization (ICAM) Office in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Industrial Base Resilience; on detail from the US Navy.
In his current assignment Dr. Draper overseas an investment portfolio in casting, forging, and industrial metals production covering initiatives in infrastructure, workforce, automation, and alloy and process development. In parallel, Matt is working to establish an indigenous manufacturing and repair capability in the INDOPACOM Theater, and on department wide Advanced Manufacturing transition, as well as hosting the upcoming reality competition television show Cast-in-Steel.
Dr. Draper is also the United States National Lead for The Technical Cooperation Program (TTCP) – Materials and Processing Technology Group; leading efforts with our allies in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
At his home command, Dr. Draper is the Principal for Alloy Development and Processing Technology at the Naval Surface Warfare Center – Carderock Division. Prior to joining the government Matt was the head of Materials Development at General Dynamics Electric Boat working on design of the COLUMBIA and VIRGINIA Payload Module and preceding that a process metallurgist at Scot Forge. Dr. Draper has a BS from Northwestern University (Olson Group) and a PhD from the University of Maryland (Ankem Group); both in Materials Engineering.