Intelligent 3D Printing: Enabling the Next Industrial Revolution
Additive manufacturing (AM), more commonly known as 3D printing, is slated to change the entire manufacturing sector within the next decade.
It is estimated that by 2025, the global economic impact of AM will approach $550 billion a year. In the past five years, AM has proven that it can move beyond prototyping into mainstream manufacturing. The next wave of innovation—expected to substantively transform the industrial economy—will be the availability of robust and intelligent AM machines and processing technologies. These will be used to make high-value finished products out of metals and high-performance lightweight materials.
Dr. Ehsan Toyserkani, Canada Research Chair in Multi-Scale Additive Manufacturing, is searching for responses to this anticipated innovation that may transform the way AM processes function. He and his research team are combining the concept of intelligent mechatronics systems with AM processes to improve process reliability and repeatability that, in turn, will reduce development costs and increase productivity.
They are developing comprehensive models that will allow for fast process simulation and integration in control system hierarchies along with advanced monitoring sensors to provide feedback signals. These models and sensors are integrated into intelligent controllers developed by a variety of classic soft computing and advanced deep-learning approaches.
The next generation of intelligent AM machines will play an important role in the digital transformation of manufacturing, known as Industry 4.0. Toyserkani’s research will have applications in fields ranging from aerospace to tooling, biomedical, defense, energy and various industrial sectors.