Metal Additive Manufacturing via Jetting of Molten Metal Droplets

Sponsored by the Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

with Denis Cormier,
Earl W. Brinkman Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Rochester Institute of Technology

Friday, October 24, 2025
12:20 pm
Durham Hall, Room 261

In contrast to the rapid rise in usage of inexpensive desktop 3D printers, industrial adoption of metal additive manufacturing (AM) technologies has largely been limited to the aerospace and biomedical sectors over the past 20 years. The primary reasons for this are the high cost of equipment (often >$1M), the high cost of metal powder (5X-10X higher than ingot/bar material), the relatively low print speeds (hours to days per part), and environmental health and safety concerns about metal powders. This talk will present an emerging metal AM technology, called molten metal jetting (MMJ), which has the potential to address many of these challenges. MMJ ejects droplets of molten metal from nozzles towards a moving build platform where they land, spread out, cool down, and solidify to form the shape of the desired component. The process can use inexpensive ingot, rod, or wire as the feedstock material, thus significantly lowering part cost. This talk will highlight several multidisciplinary MMJ R&D efforts aimed at increasing print speed and part quality while lowering overall fabrication costs. One such effort involves the recent demonstration of coordinated multi-nozzle droplet jetting that enables significant reductions in part fabrication time with no loss of achievable feature size. Another research thrust involves multi-physics simulations of molten metal droplet ejection with an aim towards increasing the achievable jetting frequency and print speed. Lastly, part quality is of utmost concern for industrial applications. Research involving closed-loop process monitoring and control with high-speed multi-nozzle droplet jetting will be presented.

Denis Cormier is the Earl W. Brinkman Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) where he also directs the New York State funded AMPrint Center. He was on the ISE faculty at NC State University from 1994-2009. While at NC State, his research efforts focused on design and fabrication of engineered lattice structures, development of electron beam melting (EBM) process parameters for aerospace alloys, and novel applications of AM technologies. Since joining RIT, he has worked extensively in areas such as multifunctional 3D printing, molten metal jetting, and additive manufacturing with carbon fiber composite materials. Denis is a Fellow of IISE, and he was the 2024 recipient of the International FAME award, which recognizes career achievements related to additive manufacturing R&D. He has been the primary investigator for >$30M in sponsored research, and has advised 70 PhD and MS students to date.