Ames Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have received a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to improve metal alloy powders used in additive manufacturing, also known as 3-D printing. “The project will improve powder production by developing advances in a high-pressure gas atomization process pioneered at Ames Laboratory and will design and customize alloys specifically for additive manufacturing processing methods,” according to a news release. “There’s a lot of intense interest focused on additive manufacturing with metal alloys, because there are so many potential applications,” said Iver Anderson, project leader and senior metallurgist at Ames Laboratory and adjunct professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Iowa State University. “Industry has demands for prototyping parts, design development, reducing waste of expensive materials, and efficiently producing custom and legacy components for their customers.”   Iowa State University’s Center for Industrial Research and Service has worked with Iowa businesses to develop new products with the help of ISU’s 3-D metal printer.