DON26BZ01-NV034 TITLE: Effects of Additive Loading on Electromagnetic Properties in 3D Printing
OUSW (R&E) CRITICAL TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Scaled Hypersonics (SHY)
COMPONENT TECHNOLOGY PRIORITY AREA(S): Advanced Materials
PROJECTED CMMC LEVEL REQUIREMENT: Level 2 (Self)
The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), 22 CFR Parts 120-130, which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services, including export of sensitive technical data, or the Export Administration Regulation (EAR), 15 CFR Parts 730-774, which controls dual use items. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals (FNs), their country(ies) of origin, the type of visa or work permit possessed, and the statement of work (SOW) tasks intended for accomplishment by the FN(s) in accordance with the Announcement. Offerors are advised foreign nationals proposed to perform on this topic may be restricted due to the technical data under US Export Control Laws.
OBJECTIVE: Assess the effects of additives into 3D-printed input materials that are structurally and thermally viable for weapon system components, to determine the changes to electromagnetic (EM) properties that can be achieved based on how the additives change the material properties of 3D printed materials, and changes required to the 3D-printing process to ensure sufficient additive concentration to achieve relevant EM property changes. The end goal of this research is to establish what EM behavior effects are possible with relevant material properties for weapon systems and what additive composition are needed to obtain them. An initial use case of an antenna radome for a weapon system navigation receiver will be explored.
DESCRIPTION: Many different 3D printing techniques are currently employed today and the use of this technology has progressed from niche, one-off manufacturing to producing large components, printing directly onto complex-shaped objects, and even mass manufacture. The majority of the printing that is performed, however, focuses on pure polymer materials. There is a need to develop technologies to attenuate electromagnetic (EM) radiation for relevant purposes specific to many military applications. Pure polymer materials traditionally used for 3D printing do not attenuate Radio Frequency (RF) and are often transparent to key frequencies. The incorporation of additives into the polymer input materials can change the EM properties of the bulk material as evidenced by initial research by the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division. The full benefit applied to more relevant applications needs to be addressed. The work in this SBIR topic is meant to determine what EM attenuation behaviors are possible with the incorporation of additives, for materials intended for use in relevant environments. This includes analyzing changes to the physical properties of the produced materials to determine how the thermal and mechanical properties as well as the printability of the materials are affected, to include changes needed to the printing process to create more relevant effects.
PHASE I: Produce additive incorporated 3D-material substrates and conducting characterization of the electromagnetic changes. (Note: The form of the materials will depend on the printing techniques employed, but could include filaments, powders, or resin materials, selected based on applicability to the expected operating environment for weapon system antenna radome.)
PHASE II: Print antenna radome representative samples with different additives and additive concentrations to assess the EM property control potential along with structural and thermal performance. Impacts to the printing process will also be assessed to determine if modifications to 3D printer software/hardware are required to reach full benefit. These assessments will inform the selection of final material and additives for Phase III.
PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: Print a full-scale antenna radome prototype, with additive selection and concentration, to meet specified performance parameters for frequency transmission and rejection. Antenna radome prototypes will be characterized for EM, structural, and thermal performance prior to testing an actual weapon system. Rapid printing of prototypes using validated material specifications and printing methodologies will also be conducted to demonstrate the feasibility of in-theater replacement part manufacture with modified EM response characteristics.
Given the ever increasing spectrum usage & crowding a dual use application would be antenna radome designs that provide a high rejection, tight bandpass to mitigate non-desired frequency interference. Additional dual use application would be tuning for thermal performance for commercial antenna applications in high solar load environment where the additives would be tailored to improve heat dissipation and reduce impact of ultra-violet radiation degradation to structural material properties of the radome.
REFERENCES:
KEYWORDS: Additive; Manufacturing; Electromagnetic Properties; EM; 3D Print; Nanomaterials; Transparency; Reflection; Emission
| 5/20/26 | Q. | For Phase I, what is the definition of "3D-material substrates"? If FDM printing is being considered, would this be the filament or a 3d printed FDM object? Is conducting testing of EM changes in a filament for an FDM 3d printer sufficient for a Phase I scope of work? |
| A. | The phase 1 would involve printing simple objects/coupon level materials for electromagnetic analysis. Analysis of the loaded filament would not be sufficient to cover the goals laid out in Phase 1. | |
| 5/19/26 | Q. | For DON26BZ01-NV034, would approaches that modify electromagnetic properties through surface-applied or panel-attached additive-loaded features on 3D-printed test articles be considered responsive, provided the Phase I effort measures RF transmission, attenuation, reflection, and dielectric behavior? |
| A. | The call only specifies using additives incorporated into 3D printed materials. This could include printing whole objects, printing directly onto objects, printing panels that can be attached to objects or other similar methods. | |
| 5/12/26 | Q. | What is the general range of size/dimensions, thickness, and key structural properties of radomes that are envisioned to be 3D printed for this ask? Must it be one continuous print or could smaller prints be robustly jointed together? What is an acceptable turnaround time/printing speed for such radomes? |
| A. | The specifics of the range, type, size, and other dimensions are not being specified at this time during the proposal phase to keep the possible approaches as open as possible. The desire of the call especially in phase 1 is to explore the possible changes that can be produced using the additive printing approaches. After participants have been selected, it is expected that there will be some more details provided regarding these specifications once results from the additive incorporated printing research has started and there is more information on the available material performances in relevant frequency bands to direct what type of radome is being targeted for later phases. The printing methods are also being left open for the production of the test radome and all approaches including those that either print whole components, print directly onto other surfaces, or print panels for attachment will be considered. There are no concerns at this time regarding printing speeds. | |
| 5/12/26 | Q. | What are the general electromagnetic frequency ranges that are of potential interest? |
| A. | As mentioned above, the call has been kept vague intentionally to capture a wide array of potential approaches. There are no details available at this time for specific frequency bands, but the call does lay out RF attenuation and a radome test case, so any measured or predicted performance data on relevant RF bands commonly used in radome applications can be provided in the proposals to demonstrate the utility and value of the proposed approach. | |
| 5/12/26 | Q. | Are there any preferred/approved/qualified 3D printers & software utilized or could be utilized by the Navy that is envisioned to be most relevant for this topic? If so, which ones? |
| A. | The printing methods are also being left open and all 3D printer based methods will be considered. The various strengths, weaknesses, and general practicality of the proposed approaches for the types of applications described in the proposal will be considered during the evaluation phase, however. | |
| 5/12/26 | Q. | What is the temperature range of "thermally" viable? What target operating/temperature environments are of interest? |
| A. | There are no specific temperature requirements for the proposal call at this time. The only direction that has been provided for temperature guidance is that materials should be stable to the normal operational conditions currently experienced by military forces at this time (i.e. normal temperature/humidity conditions) at minimum. | |
| 5/12/26 | Q. | What type of 3D printing materials are being considered? Is there a general material set in mind that additives would need to work in/with or already tried/being used by Dahlgren? Similarly, what types of additives are within scope? |
| A. | The printing methods are also being left open and all 3D printer based methods and materials (metal, polymer, ceramics, etc.) will be considered. The various strengths, weaknesses, and general practicality of the proposed approaches for the types of applications described in the proposal will be considered during the evaluation phase, however. The types of additives are also being left open and all additives included in proposals will be considered. |
** TOPIC NOTICE ** |
The Navy Topic above is an "unofficial" copy from the Navy Topics in the DoW FY-26 Release 1 SBIR BAA. Please see the official DoW Topic website at www.dodsbirsttr.mil/submissions/solicitation-documents/active-solicitations for any updates. The DoW issued its Navy FY-26 Release 1 SBIR Topics pre-release on April 13, 2026 which opens to receive proposals on May 6, 2026, and closes June 3, 2026 (12:00pm ET). Direct Contact with Topic Authors: During the pre-release period (April 13, through May 5, 2026) proposing firms have an opportunity to directly contact the Technical Point of Contact (TPOC) to ask technical questions about the specific BAA topic. The TPOC contact information is listed in each topic description. Once DoW begins accepting proposals on May 6, 2026 no further direct contact between proposers and topic authors is allowed unless the Topic Author is responding to a question submitted during the Pre-release period. DoD On-line Q&A System: After the pre-release period, until May 20, 2026, at 12:00 PM ET, proposers may submit written questions through the DoW On-line Topic Q&A at https://www.dodsbirsttr.mil/submissions/login/ by logging in and following instructions. In the Topic Q&A system, the questioner and respondent remain anonymous but all questions and answers are posted for general viewing. DoW Topics Search Tool: Visit the DoW Topic Search Tool at www.dodsbirsttr.mil/topics-app/ to find topics by keyword across all DoW Components participating in this BAA.
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