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ORNL and ARC Partner to Accelerate On-Demand Manufacturing of Critical Defense Components

2026-04-28

The U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and American Resources Corporation (ARC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish a public-private partnership called the 'Exascale Foundry.' This initiative aims to accelerate on-demand manufacturing of mission-critical defense components by integrating ORNL's supercomputing and manufacturing capabilities with ARC's distributed manufacturing platform, ARCNet. The closed-loop system will enable AI-driven material certification and autonomous production. ARC will deploy seven production nodes securely connected to ORNL, while ORNL will provide high-performance computing, simulation, and materials certification support. ORNL's Peregrine AI software, which has analyzed over 1.9 million layers of additive manufacturing data, will be integrated for real-time quality control. The partnership aims to compress manufacturing and certification timelines from years to months, supporting the DOE's 'Genesis Mission' and strengthening defense supply chain security. This marks a key milestone in transitioning metal 3D printing from lab-scale to scalable defense production, advancing rapid certification and batch manufacturing in military applications.

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美橡树岭与ARC合作加速国防关键部件按需制造

美国自主资源公司（ARC）与橡树岭国家实验室（ORNL）签署谅解备忘录，建立名为“百亿亿次铸造厂”的公私合作伙伴关系，旨在加速美国国防关键任务部件的按需制造。合作将整合ORNL的超级计算与制造能力，以及ARC的分布式制造平台ARCNet，形成闭环系统，实现AI驱动的材料认证与自主生产。ARC将部署七个生产节点，通过安全网络连接ORNL；ORNL则提供高性能计算、模拟仿真及材料认证支持，其Peregrine AI软件已分析超190万层增材制造数据，将被集成用于实时质量控制。该合作旨在将制造与认证周期从数年压缩至数月，并支持美国能源部“创世纪任务”，强化国防供应链安全。此举标志着金属3D打印从实验室走向规模化国防生产的关键一步，对推动增材制造在军工领域的快速认证与批量生产具有里程碑意义。

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