The study builds a 17-4PH stainless steel / Inconel 625 bimetallic structure with cold metal transfer (CMT) wire arc additive manufacturing and looks at its microstructure, mechanical performance and the integrity of the interface between the two metals. The results help in making dissimilar-metal parts for large engineering applications.

Authors: Muhammad Irfan, Mohammad Keshmiri, Shalini Singh, Abba Abubakar, Sajid Ullah Butt, Yun-Fei Fu, Abul Fazal Arif, Osezua Ibhadode and Ahmed Jawad Qureshi.

Esosa Egharevba presented a poster, and Muhammad Irfan attended as a co-author of a submitted conference paper. The meeting was a good chance to catch up on new research and industry work in AM and to meet researchers from across the country.

Their design used functionally graded TPMS lattices, designed in nTopology, for a high strength-to-weight ratio and good impact absorption. 3D scan data was used to fit the design to the wearer’s anatomy, and structural and impact simulations in Ansys and Abaqus were used to check how well it protects.

The team was Joseph Nonso Orakwe and Xinhao Yin, mentored by Prof. Ehsan Toyserkani (MSAM Lab, University of Waterloo) and Dr. Osezua Ibhadode. Experts from the ASME K-16 committee reviewed each team’s design and white paper. Our design had the highest predicted figure of merit in the field, at 10.96%.

The three finalist designs are being printed by Fabric8Labs and tested at Georgia Tech, and the teams will present their work at IEEE ITherm 2026 in Orlando. See the competition announcement for all finalists and honourable mentions.

The project uses design for additive manufacturing (DfAM) to develop ergonomic, efficient tooling and fixtures built for textile manufacturing. The collaboration lets us work on real production problems while building a structured DfAM framework for low-volume, industry-specific tooling. The work is led by Armin Hassanirad.

None of it happens without the people in the lab and the academic and industry collaborators who support us. In 2026 we’re building on that momentum with new collaborations, new student opportunities, and more work on structural design, optimization and additive manufacturing.

The project uses Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) to develop ergonomic, efficient, application-specific tooling and fixtures for textile manufacturing. Along with solving real problems on the shop floor, the goal is a structured DfAM framework for low-volume, industry-specific tooling.