Sigma Labs Inc (SASI)

[GetRich1day]

Nice article offers some behind the scenes insight on Test and Evaluation of CMC's. I've often said that it takes years and millions to develop this type of technology and it's great to see it in print. It's really just a matter of time. IMHO All the Dots continue to align as SGLB is involved with the right players all these years doing T&E for AM.

"The materials developed in the DOE program became the foundation for the material now going into aircraft engines," said Krishan Luthra, who led GE Global Research's development of CMCs for 25 years.

DOE's Continuous Fiber Ceramic Composite (CFCC) program ran from 1992 to 2002 and supported industrial development of CMCs by AlliedSignal, Alzeta, Amercom, Babcock and Wilcox, Dow Chemical, Dow Corning, DuPont-Lanxide Composites, GE and Textron. Its budget averaged $10 million per year, and industry shared costs.

GE's CFCC project was to develop CMCs for industrial gas turbine engines that produce electricity. (GE manufactures both power and propulsion turbines.) A follow-on DOE program ran through 2005 and funded the most promising CFCC companies to further develop materials and components and if possible, test them in applications. Total funding was approximately $15 million, with industry cost-sharing approaching 50 percent. GE field-tested a CMC shroud in a 170-megawatt industrial gas turbine under the program. All told, GE invested $1.5 billion after that to commercialize the technology.
"Seed money is critical for high-risk, high-payoff technologies," Luthra said. "Material development is a long-term activity, and Oak Ridge tremendously supported the basic research."

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2017-01-ceramic-matrix-composites-flight-jet.html#jCp