Material Development and Manufacturing

Responsive design and production of mission-critical energetic materials

LLNL scientists design materials that are uniquely tuned to specific mission-critical applications. They also develop more flexible, responsive manufacturing processes that can be rapidly transferred to production partners.

For example, our research focuses on reducing the time needed to develop and test new material formulations, produce novel components, and modernize manufacturing technologies. New solutions need to carefully balance performance and safety requirements with manufacturability.

Material Development

Our scientists discover and design new molecules and composite materials capable of addressing evolving mission requirements—combining decades of experience with the latest artificial intelligence and data science tools to speed the discovery process and rapidly identify promising candidates. In addition, we evaluate, develop, and deploy new synthesis technologies that enable material optimization, adapting it to address specific performance parameters. Our teams also analyze and refine the formulation process so that feedstock material can be tailored to the manufacturing environment, using a design-for-manufacturing perspective as we analyze potential solutions.

Responsive Manufacturing

Advances in manufacturing capabilities play a key role in our ability to tailor the safety, sensitivity, and performance of energetic materials to meet evolving needs. We explore new technologies that can expand our design space, provide a safer or more efficient production process, or offer solutions that will transfer more readily to a full-scale production environment. As we expand our understanding of how production affects performance, we can better support efforts to provide modern, scalable manufacturing technologies to production partners.

Research Highlights

The focus of our holistic research approach is developing integrated solutions, tailored to specific applications. For example, our recent work includes:

• Tapping into the capabilities of machine learning and artificial intelligence to speed discovery of promising new molecules and mission-relevant material formulations.
• Developing a continuous flow synthesis process that eliminates the need for separate steps when scaling-up energetic material to production scale.
• Optimizing formulation techniques, such as our use of resonant acoustic mixing technology to mill feedstocks and formulate molding powders and viscous pastes for additive manufacturing.
• Deploying nondestructive characterization tools, including computed tomography scanning and image analysis, to evaluate component microstructure.
• Expanding manufacturing options, such as our “print and press” approach that integrates printing, drying, pressing, and machining into a more streamlined production process.

Featured Collaborations

A key focus of our energetics research involves our collaboration with production partners at the Pantex Plant, a National Nuclear Security Administration facility located in Texas. Together, we explore ways to accelerate development of production-ready material and novel production technology.

We also partner with:

• Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories on fundamental techniques and technologies.
• Academic institutions on material process development and manufacturing tools.
• The private sector to design and implement custom equipment.

Related Resources

Initial development of new materials and production solutions takes place at LLNL’s High Explosives Applications Facility, where researchers test and evaluate novel concepts at the lab scale using high-speed diagnostic tools, such as microwave interferometry technology and a flash x-ray machine that allows researchers to view the explosive pathway.

Promising concepts are transitioned to LLNL’s Energetic Materials Development Enclave Campus, where scientists focus on device-scale research in a production-like environment, enabling a more responsive approach to manufacturing.

At LLNL’s Facility for the Advanced Manufacturing of Energetics, scientists evaluate production options, providing further insight regarding the transferability of manufacturing approaches to a full-scale production environment.