During the fall semester of the 2024-25 academic year, students at Purdue University got hands-on with the future of manufacturing by recreating an important landmark on campus.

As part of an introductory course on additive manufacturing, students worked together to recreate scale models of the university's iconic "Unfinished Block P" using metal 3D printing with powdered 316L Stainless Steel. The project was designed to teach the fundamentals of the additive process, from digital modeling to post-processing--giving students a practical introduction to the world of advanced manufacturing technologies. While the material used for the statue was predefined, the project still offered a valuable entry point into understanding why materials matter--how properties like thermal conductivity, strength, and surface finish can all affect a final printed part, even in a learning environment.

That's why CINDAS LLC is proud to support Purdue University and many other academic institutions by providing access to our comprehensive materials database platform. Even at the introductory level, students can benefit from being able to explore material behavior, see how different alloys compare, and start building the kind of materials knowledge that will be critical in their future careers. For those of us in industry, it's easy to forget where that knowledge begins. Tools like the Aerospace and High Performance Alloys Database (AHAD) help bridge the gap between academic learning and professional application--ensuring students aren't just learning how to print a part but how to select the optimal material used to print the part.

It's a small project with a big message: the future of manufacturing is already taking shape, one layer at a time.

Brenden O'Kane, Technical Analyst

For more on the ME 49601 Project: https://engineering.purdue.edu/ME/News/2025/printing-the-unfinished-block-p-mastering-additive-manufacturing-step-by-step

For the History of the "Unfinished Block P": http://www.purdueblockp.com/statue/history/

Properties of 316L Stainless Included in AHAD:

Area Reduction vs. Temperature
Change in Diameter [%] vs. Minor Element Content [%]
Creep, Applied Stress [ksi] vs. Minimum/Steady State Creep Rate [%/hr]
Creep, Rupture Strength [ksi] vs. Temperature
Cycles to Failure/Fatigue Life vs. Holding Time
Elongation [%] vs. Temperature
Impact Energy, Charpy [ft-lbf] vs. Delta Ferrite Content [%]
Min/Steady State Creep Rate [%/hr] vs. Aging Time
Rupture Elongation [%] vs. Aging Time
Strain Range [%] vs. Cycles to Failure/Fatigue Life
Tensile Strength, Ult. [ksi] vs. Temperature
Tensile Strength, Yield [ksi] vs. Grain Size Parameter [micron-1/2]
Tensile Strength, Yield [ksi] vs. Temperature
Tensile Stress, True [ksi] vs. Tensile Strain, True [%]
Total Strain Range [%] vs. Cycles to Failure

CINDAS LLC is a private company formed exclusively to disseminate materials properties data collected and analyzed by the Center for Information and Numerical Data Analysis and Synthesis (CINDAS) at Purdue University.

The AHAD houses 348 alloys, 830 properties, 29,979 pages, 105,641 data curves, and 12,441 technical references. Contact us at info@cindasdata.com for more information on this and other technical databases.