1 Cage Code: 8Z3A2
TRACEAM

What is TRACEAM?

3Degrees’ TRACEAM software is a streamlined platform designed to effectively 

organize, analyze, and deploy critical technical data packages related to 

Additive Manufactured parts. It is a secure and customizable interface ideal for 

use in development and sustainment operations, enabling rapid and qualified 

part solutions across DoD and its supply base. Engaged with several 

commercial customers and have been part of five funded America Makes 

projects.

Current Challenges

• 3D Printing materials qualification is SLOW (>18 months) and EXPENSIVE 

($1.5 million) per part per material per parameter set. 

• 3D Printing technical data has become unmanageable due to the quantity, 

speed, and variety of information coming through the AM workflow.

• Research, production improvements and technology adoption are limited 

by disparate data sources, little coordination, no reproducibility

• Centralizing the collection and storage of this data improves data reliability 

and frees up engineers time for higher impact activities

3Degrees’ TRACEAM system
TRACEAM

Industry Listening Tour

• We’ve completed over 100 customer discovery interviews 

of potential commercial users. 96% of these organizations 

had no formal structure for managing their AM data. 

• Rather, they used basic spreadsheet tools (Excel) and had 

no centralized strategy for leveraging this information. 

• This was true not only for small companies (1-2 production 

printers) but also the case for large organizations (3+ 

printers) that had already invested over a million dollars 

into hardware

• Estimated $1-1.5 million dollars and 18 months to qualify a 

single material on a single machine
TRACEAM

Problem Statement: 

Currently, when users log into the America Makes Digital Storefront they see a 

text-heavy dashboard listing historical projects, with project data is stored in a 

variety of formats (e.g., Word, Excel, PDF). Although this is perfectly suitable for 

accessing certain types of data (e.g., project final reports, TRX PPT 

presentations), it makes it difficult for a member to see comparative data or 

trend analysis. 

Objectives: 

We proposed to build a functional database utilizing 3Degrees’ TRACEAM

software, which is specifically designed to collate 3D Printing data according to 

the workflows of the 3D Printing process 

Team:

Initial Case Study
TRACEAM

Industry efforts to build AM data sets are already underway

• NASA is working with various industry and academic partners (led by 

Auburn University) to help in the development of an initial database 

of key properties from a number of alloys to help accelerate feasibility 

properties (not A-basis) and modeling efforts through the NASA 

RAMPT program

• Several AM alloys of interest have been characterized by various 

commercial companies, however a majority of the data is proprietary 

and not accessible

• Best practices applied from NASA MSFC-SPEC-3717 (along with MSFCSTD-3716)

•Characterization and evolution of the materials during heat 

treatments

•Recommending heat treatment schedules

•Complete basic mechanical and thermophysical property testing

•Tensile from -320F through 1800F +

•Low Cycle Fatigue at various strains from -320F through 1600F

•High cycle fatigue testing as allows at various strains

•Thermal conductivity, CTE

*Data courtesy NASA and Auburn
TRACEAM

Currently developing lessons learned from digitally tagging and curating the NASA MSFC data 

using TRACEAM in collaboration with the CDME at the Ohio St University

*Data courtesy 

NASA and Auburn

TRACEAM
TRACEAM

Enabling the DoD AM Supply Chain

Commercial Extension: 

We are building on the work of our Phase II DoD SBIR 

by partnering with the DoD supply chain. Our aim is to 

create a path for federated, pedigreed, and validated 

AM digital data and workflows that can extend to DoD 

suppliers.
TRACEAM

Discussions Points 

1. What data are you wanting to manage (PDFs, text, numerical, graphs, etc.)?

2. How are teams interacting with the information (various stakeholders)?

3. How can we help people articulate a security strategy that makes sense?

4. What are the key insights that we want this data for? (ie Show me the last ten 

builds and the average elongation at break.)