New Advanced Manufacturing Lab Opens at National Laboratory

"Advanced technology is reshaping and transforming manufacturing the world over," according to Allan Chen, a writer for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Science & Technology Review. "Signs of this transformation are everywhere: factory automation, machine learning, additive manufacturing, robotics, and cloud-based process management, to name only a few trends. Livermore contributes to this renaissance through its research and development in fields such as advanced manufacturing, partnerships that use the Laboratory's high-performance computing to improve industrial processes, and commercializing new manufacturing technologies."

The most recent local sign of this transformation in manufacturing may be the new Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory (AML), a $10 million state-of-the-art, 14,000-square-foot facility that opened in January as part of the recently expanded Livermore Valley Open Campus. The AML was three years in the making, and will allow industry and academia to benefit from LLNL's science and engineering expertise through the creation of public-private partnerships to address manufacturing challenges, according to LLNL officials. It will help LLNL's private sector collaborators "accelerate innovation and reduce production costs and time," officials say, while at the same time supporting important projects in nationally critical sectors such as energy and national security.

"The facility aims to leverage its experience in precision engineering, materials science, and high-performance computing to help advance the field of 3D printing," according to 3D Printing Industry, a trade publication. "As such, researchers from the facility have consistently attempted to push the boundaries of the technology." In collaboration with others, teams from LLNL have developed a method for the industrial-scale production of nanoscale 3D printing, pioneered the use of X-ray imaging to identify defects in metal 3D printed parts, and created "3D printed micro-sized mechanical logic gates, which can enable materials to respond to environmental stimuli," according to 3D Printing Industry.

A Regional Powerhouse

The creation of the recently completed Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory at LLNL is not a coincidence, according to Stephen Baiter, Executive Director of the East Bay Economic Development Alliance. The AML's location "speaks to the breadth, depth, and diversity of the East Bay's manufacturing sector. Unlike many regions where one or two major industries dominate the manufacturing landscape, the East Bay has a number of sub-sectors, including biotech, equipment and machining, food, and others. As a facility that is pioneering new materials and processes, the AML will have the opportunity to work with a wide range of companies that are seeking to create and design new products using new and different types of materials and technologies."

The new lab currently hosts eight industry partners and features a 5,000-square-foot wet lab for new process development, 3D printing, materials research, chemical work, and other activities. A 5,000-square-foot instrument lab contains industrial-sized manufacturing machines, as well as leading-edge metal 3D-printing research systems and nanomanufacturing capabilities. Bisecting the two labs is a viewing corridor allowing visitors to observe ongoing research. The AML also houses a conference room and shared work areas to support collaborative projects.

"We are looking for partnerships with industry in areas of research and development that we both care about," according to Chris Spadaccini, Director of the Center for Engineered Materials and Manufacturing and head of Livermore's Additive Manufacturing Initiative. "We expect that both sides will contribute actively to efforts that advance technologies useful to our partners' needs and the Laboratory's missions. We are also pursuing partnerships with academic institutions, because AML could serve as a hub to support student and faculty interactions with Livermore and the commercial sector."

3D Printing Industry reports that the AML's advanced additive manufacturing systems are so advanced that some of them are unavailable commercially. Companies and institutions that are accepted as AML partners will also have access to other sophisticated resources, including material evaluation and characterization equipment, high-performance computing modeling and simulation capabilities, and manufacturing systems from several active LLNL research programs.

Livermore Valley Open Campus

Built along the boundaries of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore Valley Open Campus (LVOC) allows researchers from private industry and academia to collaborate with lab personnel on research that often leads to new patents, products, and technology. As highly secure sites, the process for outsiders to get access to the resources of the labs was formidable and time-consuming until the LVOC was developed.

That changed when the first phase of LVOC opened in 2011. LVOC made it much easier for outside business experts and academic specialists to participate in, or benefit from, collaboration with the labs. LVOC was meant as a bridge between the labs and the outside world and designed to help boost the country's economic competitiveness by providing greater public access to research and advanced computer programs developed by the labs. The AML's location at LVOC "facilitates collaboration and communication by freeing partner personnel from the strict security requirements that must be followed when working within Laboratory boundaries," notes Chen, "At the same time, AML's partnership model provides mechanisms to address the partners' concerns, including intellectual property and confidentiality."

As part of developing the AML, officials at LLNL worked to understand the needs of private industry in a variety of ways. LLNL held an "industrial partnerships day" to hear from potential partners in person. Officials also used the Federal Business Opportunities channel to ask companies for partnership ideas. The result of this research, according to Chen, was a flexible facility with a strategic plan that offers five tracks for partnerships: design, materials, processes, applications, and qualification and certification.

"Each track focuses on a particular area of manufacturing relevant to a party's interests," Chen explains. "In the design track, for example, partners can leverage Livermore's design optimization capabilities and high-performance computing resources to improve complex, multifunctional designs for their products. The materials track applies Livermore's expertise in developing new manufacturing materials, such as metallic particles, nanomaterials, glass, and liquid photo resins."

LVOC was already an incredible resource for Tri-Valley and East Bay companies able to benefit from expertise from both LLNL and Sandia National Laboratories. Now LVOC offers those companies that qualify for partnerships with AML an even greater competitive advantage.

"AML is enabling a new business model for Livermore to team with industrial and academic partners, and the success of these collaborations could provide a template for public-private partnerships in the future," according to Anantha Krishnan, LLNL Associate Director for Engineering.

For more information about Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, please visit www.llnl.gov.

For more information about the LLNL's Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory, please visit www.engineering.llnl.gov/collaboration/advanced-manufacturing-lab.

For more information about the Livermore Valley Open Campus, please visit www.lvoc.org.

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