Joseph J. Beaman - US grants

This proposal will investigate a new manufacturing process which builds up parts in layers from a powder by selectively sintering each layer with a laser. The objective of the process is to automatically produce three-dimensional parts of general shape directly from a CAD database without part-specific tooling or human intervention. Each layer that is built up corresponds to a cross-section of the part. Powder is deposited into a box in thin layers; after each layer is deposited, the surface of the powder is raster-scanned with a high-power laser beam. The intensity of the laser beam is modulated so that the powder is sintered or fused in the areas that are to be occupied by the part at that particular cross-section. In those areas not sintered, the powder remains loose. Another layer of powder is then deposited and raster-scanned. The process is repeated until the entire part is produced. The methodology to be used is an experimental/empirical approach used in conjunction with computer modeling and analysis. The objectives of the proposed research are to formulate a process model and rules for selection of powders and process parameters, and to explore post-treatments. Preliminary work has been conducted with plastic powder; the proposed work is needed to demonstrate feasibility with common engineering materials. The proposed process which produces a three-dimensional part by the combination of a raster scan and selective sintering from a CAD database without part specific tooling or human intervention appears to be novel. This process should facilitate the quick production of prototype parts which should reduce product development time.

This research will entail the design of magnetically levitated micro- robots which are capable of submicron-level six-degree-of-freedom motion over large ranges. Micro-robots are microelectromechanical devices capable of repeatable, precise automated, micron-level motions. They potentially have great application in such technologies as the construction of hybrid devices with associated semiconductor devices. The magnetic levitation approach was selected because magnetically-levitated systems can function in harsh environments and minimize friction effects and the associated problems of fine particle matter generation. Additionally, such systems can be designed to provide movement to absolutely defined locations so that motion errors do not compound. The research will entail four major paths of study: development of analytical tools which may be used for design of magnetic levitation microbiotic systems, development of a sensor system suitable for a levitation system at least four degrees of freedom, design of a macro/micro-robot pair system which permits high precision motion over a wide range, and demonstration of the system performing a variety of tasks.

The objective of this research is to develop the engineering technology base to produce structural parts in ceramics from both solid powders and gas precursors. If successful, this technology has the potential to produce order-of-magnitude productivity improvements in design visualization, prototyping, and parts-on- demand and to dramatically shorten development cycle times for engineering systems by breaking the modelmaking/prototyping bottleneck. This technology does not directly compete with conventional processes for large production numbers, but competes in low production number situations such as the production of prototype parts, design visualization models, casting patterns, and parts on demand. The feasibility of Solid Freeform Fabrication has been experimentally demonstrated using Selective Laser Sintering on polymeric materials, a process developed during our research in this area.

The purpose of this conference is to provide a forum for an exchange of ideas between researchers in the Division of Design and Manufacturing Systems to assure that these individual researchers are informed about the present ongoing activities of their colleagues. Thus an elimination of duplication of their efforts may be achieved and a degree of cooperation may result. An overall improvement of efficiency of the Division would be expected. In addition, the conference program organization allows for ample time to discuss manufacturing research in detail with the collective research community at the meeting with feedback and input from the National Science Foundation. Finally, personal contacts with researchers in the Division should contribute to clarifying many current problems in their work. Principal Investigator's will have one to two years advanced information as it often takes that much time between the report of the work presented at the grantees conference and the publication of papers about this work in the literature.

This is a Small Grant for Exploratory Research in support of the Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS) Initiative. In an unprecedented world wide effort, numerous commercial organizations and universities have joined together under the aegis of the IMS test case for rapid prototyping to conduct a one year feasibility study. This grant provides partial support for a student to work in this effort. This support is important in that it provides student involvement in a project that may be the forerunner of a new paradigm for the way research is to be performed. //

DMI-9812084 Beaman The Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium is a topical meeting where a research exchange in the area of rapid prototyping is promoted. This meeting draws approximately 200 participants, researchers from universities, companies and national laboratories, as well as students and international researchers. Sessions are planned with the expectation that the current year will have sessions similar to the 1997 symposium, with approximately 90 talks and posters. This symposium provides an excellent venue for students, encouraging interactions with leading experts in the field of rapid prototyping. This award from the National Science Foundation will provide student support to attend the 1998 Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium to be held August 10-12. 1998 in Austin, Texas.

The Solid Freeform Fabrication (SFF) Symposium provides an annual forum for research exchange in the area of rapid prototyping. The meeting draws approximately 200 researchers from universities, companies and national laboratories from all over the world. Approximately 95 talks and posters were presented at the 1998 meeting. The meeting is well regarded by the research community. The SFF Symposium also attracts graduate students worldwide. The previous NSF support contributed to the reduction of student registration fee in the past. The 1999 SFF Symposium will be held at the University of Texas at Austin, August 9-11.

This SFF symposium is perhaps the best research meeting on rapid prototyping in the world. It is of significant importance to the researchers and provides an excellent learning experience for the participated graduate students.

The field of Solid Freeform Fabrication (SFF) has developed significantly over the fast 15 years. The ability to make a part quickly with minimal (imitations on geometric shape has spawned applications in the fields of transportation, medicine, the military, microelectronics, and others. With this growth has developed the need for researchers to meet to discuss fundamental and developmental issues of SFF. The annual SFF Symposium was first held in 1990 to provide a forum for technical exchange of all aspects of SFF: materials, process development, physical and computational modeling, and applications. It is the oldest continuous meeting in the area and is reputed to be one of the top research meetings in the world.

From the beginning, the philosophy of the SFF Symposium Organizing Committee of student involvement has been crucial to the success of the meeting and the field. Student involvement is encouraged by offering a student registration rate that is approximately one-third of the regular rate and which for the last several years has in fact been approximately $150 below the per capita break-even cost. This subsidy has been effective in attracting students. Sixty-six students attended the most recent Symposium, approximately 37% of the entire meeting. Participants represented 51 universities (19 international universities), 26 industries (5 international) and 8 national labs and government agencies. The interaction with the scientific leaders of the field is beneficial to these young scientists and represents an investment in the future of the US scientific infrastructure.

The overall objective of this research project is to change, fundamentally, industrial engineering design processes by providing a means to integrate, directly, virtual and physical prototypes. Six supporting research objectives will be pursued to meet this goal. The first is to benchmark industrial design processes to clarify critical managerial needs, and quantify their cycle time, cost, and product quality tradeoffs. The next objective is to develop a new similarity method to enable reliable functional tests with rapid prototypes in broad product domains. A third objective is to embed instrumentation (sensors and interconnects) within physical prototypes, and to estimate product behavior through physical measurements. Based on these measurements, a theoretical framework and algortihms will be developed to compare and integrate virtual models with physical models, followed by the objective of validating the new process by designing, fabricating, and thermo-mechanically evaluating prototype products from industrial benchmarks.

If successful, the research will significantly reduce design cycle times. As a consequence, more information will be available to the designer earlier in the design process, possibly increasing productivity and design robustness. Particular benefits expected from the research include: a novel solid freeform fabrication process with embedded sensor technology; sensor models using polymer materials; control, signal processing, and similitude analysis techniques for integrating virtual and physical models.

This research addresses the concept of using multi-stable equilibria (MSE) devices as a type of adaptive system. MSE systems are those that have more than one configuration at which their potential energy is at a minimum such that no power is required to maintain the equilibrium position. As opposed to adaptive structures that use active materials such as piezoelectrics and shape memory alloys, the adaptive states of MSE systems are passive and need only actuation to move among the stable states. Because of this focus on passive and nondissipative aspects of energetic systems, the impact of MSE systems is in improving system performance in terms of operating range, accuracy, reliability, and energy efficiency.
The approach of the research is to synthesize MSE systems for specific engineering tasks such as designing devices to have specific stable geometrical configurations and/or natural frequencies at each equilibrium position. Although some analysis has been done on a few bistable structures, the significance of this research is in providing insight into the MSE design process by creating a synthetic, rather than analytic, approach to a more general class of systems. Some areas of application for MSE devices are those in which single operating points limit system efficiency, actuator characteristics inhibit a large range of adaptability, and where the minimization of dissipative effects are important.
Fully compliant structures when combined with magnetic actuation lead to smooth nonlinear systems, which are amenable to accurate modeling. They also possess ultra-high precision and repeatability, and long system life due to wear-free operation. Such systems also have several advantages when scaled down to the micro-systems domain. The results of the proposed research should have broad impact on design and analysis of multi-state precision mechanical systems, adaptive transducers, passive human augmentation systems, and adaptive structures.

The recent increase in demand for information bandwidth has created the need for improving current technologies for data, voice and video transmission. The telecommunications industry has increasingly emphasized the development of fiberoptic networks to meet this demand. One key to creating this infrastructure is the production of economical fiberoptic components, such as wave guides and Bragg gratings. Current manufacturing techniques for optical components and fiber preforms are limited to vapor deposition techniques and photolithographic processes. This research is to advance the field of optical component manufacturing through innovative direct-write processing.

Our goal is to develop a novel manufacturing process based on laser sintering of materials produced from sol-gel processing techniques. Research tasks include: (1) characterizating the chemistry and processing of sol-gels; (2) design, construction, and testing of a workstation for combined sol-gel preparation and laser densification of multi-layer optical components; (3) developing a real time controller for the workstation; and (4) fabricating three-dimensional optical components to demonstrate the process. We expect fundamental science-based results in the areas of unique sol-gel materials and chemistry, repeatability of sol-gel processing, materials characterization, models for optical property control, machine design of sol-gel deposition and densification, and laser processing methods for micron and sub-micron materials. We also expect overall deliverables of a repeatable direct-write process and example 3D optical components. Collaboration with an industrial partner, 3M Corporation, will provide fundamental understanding of the industry needs and capabilities, leading to a higher potential for future commercialization. These unique research experiences will provide direct educational benefits to both graduate and undergraduate students in systems design engineering and optical product realization.

We believe our approach will lead to innovative optical component designs, not producible by current vapor deposition techniques. These components will provide higher performance and enable the telecommunications industry to better meet the needs of society.

The goal of this project is to advance the fundamental understanding of mathematical predication through Empirical Similitude Method (ESM), a novel approach that takes non-linearities and property variations into account to estimate the performance of an actual product. The Traditional Similitude Method (TSM) or Dimensional Analysis incorporates the Buckingham's Pi theorem to predict the behavior of a system by analyzing and testing its corresponding scaled prototype. The constraints and limitations in using this method lie in the assumption that the system follows a power law, the scaling parameters obtained after analysis are unique and constant through the entire range of application, and the parameters are indicative of the actual system only. The TSM analysis is primarily confined to prediction in focused domains. Preliminary work in ESM has been achieved by implementing systematic numerical manipulations in the algebraic domain by using tools including Conformal Mapping, Linear Algebra, Vector Calculus and Statistics to address the concerns of various forms of distortion comprising model distortion like isotropic and orthotropic properties, geometric distortion including shape and orientation, parametric distortion like size and dimensions and feature distortion like square holes vs. round holes.

This project aims to develop a comprehensive mathematical derivation that gives insights into the existing methods of ESM and further extends this process for complex systems. Research tasks include extending the Conformal Mapping, evaluating the system in the Z-space or the imaginary domain, developing a pragmatic definition for Lumped Empirical Similitude Method and using the Circulant Matrix approach to establish the practical reasoning of ESM. Collaboration with industry on such applications as scaled automotive crash testing will demonstrate the significant impact this approach can have to numerous complex systems problems. The researchers will also explore a collaborative research activity with a group of faculty at Texas A & M University (TAMU). This collaboration will investigate possible connections between this work and research into probability modeling of design spaces with the characterization of uncertainties being conducted at TAMU.

The research objective of this project is to learn the origin of defects in infiltrated non-metallic parts produced using Selective Laser Sintering, a freeform fabrication technique. These part defects include incomplete filling by the infiltrant and localized infiltrant over-extrusion onto the surface of the part at surface irregularities. The approach is threefold. First, wetting theory will be extended to this problem and will establish a basis for defect origin. Second, guided by this scientific advance, a process will be created to remove and/or mitigate defects observed previously in silicon infiltrated silicon carbide parts. Last, the results of this scientific assessment will be verified by applying them to different part geometries that promote defect formation and to different materials systems including cobalt infiltrated tungsten carbide and epoxy infiltrated graphite.

If successful, these research results will enable development and maturing of a new manufacturing route for creating low-cost non-metallic parts with complex geometry and excellent surface finish. Included are commercially important hard-to-process materials such as cobalt-tungsten carbide, silicon-silicon carbide and graphite-graphite. This will strengthen the domestic manufacturing infrastructure and enable domestic manufacturing to compete more effectively in the world market.

This Pan-American Advanced Studies Institute (PASI), jointly supported by the NSF and Department of Energy (DOE), will take place in Porto Alegre, Brazil in June 2007, on the topic of predictive process dynamics for manufacturing (PPDM). Organized by Dr. John R. Howell of the University of Texas at Austin, the institute will involve approximately 35 participants from the United States and Latin America including graduate students and junior and established investigators, and about 10 instructors (internationally recognized scientists, active in the field). The activities will consist of a combination of tutorial lectures, advanced-topic presentations, round table discussions, and student workshops, with the goal of providing the participants with an up-to-date review the state of the art in manufacturing process control theory. The subject matter is of emerging importance to engineering and industry, and has the potential to revolutionize how products are designed, manufactured, and accepted for their intended end use.

The wide range of applications and materials will impart a significant interdisciplinary nature to the PASI, and should foster the cross-fertilization of new ideas to advance the field and, ultimately, increase relations between Latin American junior and senior investigators and their counterparts in the U.S.

This EArly-concept Grant for Exploratory Reserch (EAGER) award provides funding for the study of a computer network based manufacturing system that will allow a designer to specify, monitor and control the part fabrication process. Computer networks have evolved into a vital part of our everyday life, transforming commerce, communications, and social networking. However, the tremendous capabilities of computer networks have yet to have a substantial impact on the manufacturing sector. The current generation Internet is not suitable for manufacturing process monitoring and control. One of the major shortcomings is that real-time operation cannot be ensured. To overcome this shortcoming different protocols and architectures will be explored. Leveraging the experimental GENI platform, researchers can experiment with next generation networking protocols to determine how they can be most effectively applied to manufacturing applications.

If successful, the results of this research will lead to identifying the requirements of networks to be applied to manufacturing, and also to improve protocols and architectures to meet these requirements. The work will focus on small-lot manufacturing, which is of prime importance to the innovator. This research would enable the innovator to expand the entrepreneurial culture of the US at lower cost. A user would no longer need to contact a company and wait for them to fabricate and deliver a final product. They could just select a station, send the product information about the product, and control the process until completion. The goal is to have this occur automatically, without any part-specific human intervention or delay.

This grant provides funding for the development of Cyber Enabled Manufacturing (CeMs) process control for small lot manufacturing that incorporates a model of the process directly into the control algorithm. Such a model can be used to accommodate changes in the physical product and the manufacturing process and thus the manufacturing monitoring and control algorithm, so that changing conditions are easily accommodated without extensive additional experiments. A set of objectives of this physics and cyber-enabled manufacturing process control system are rational setting of manufacturing tolerances, real time prediction of manufacturing defects, real time control of process to eliminate defects, and real time monitoring and control for small lot manufacturing. The methodologies we propose to achieve these goals are high fidelity, physics based models including models of faults/defects, uncertainty quantification, reduced order models that run in real time, measurement, real time prediction, real time computer architecture, real time control with inverse solutions, and automating the CeMs process for generic manufacturing processes

If successful, the results of this research will greatly reduce cycle time in producing new or modified products and improve the quality of manufacturing processes with accompanying reduction in waste, energy use, and cost. The development of such accurate control algorithms and their application to manufacturing processes can provide a competitive edge to US manufacturers. Perhaps more importantly, the education of engineers involved this research will supply US industry with employees who can apply this technology to many industrial processes.

3D Printing is one of the most promising new manufacturing technologies today, with many applications already and the promise of many more in the future. However, while today's 3D Printing processes can produce parts with very complex geometries, they are slow, rough, and difficult to inspect and this limits their use in industrially-relevant applications. Support will provided for the participation of leading US researchers in 3D Printing in discussions aimed at identifying promising breakthrough approaches to improving 3D Printing with leading researchers from the UK. These workshops will be held in conjunction with two of the leading annual conferences focused on 3DP, one in the United Kingdom and one in the United States.

Additive Manufacturing (AM) has huge potential, but currently has technological limitations, including slow build speed, poor surface finish, limited ability of conventional inspection methods to characterize complex AM parts, requirements for temporary support structures that must be removed after process completion, and often poor energy efficiency. Two workshops are proposed, the first on July 7, 2014, the day before the 9th International Conference of Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing in Nottingham, UK, and the second on August 7, 2014, the day following the 25th International Solid Freeform Fabrication (SFF) Symposium in Austin, Texas. These workshops will bring together leading researchers in the US and the UK for focused discussions on identifying breakthrough approaches to addressing the limitations in current AM processes.