MRI: Development of Multi-Material Printing and Multi-Modal Sensing Capabilities for Directed Energy Deposition

该主要研究仪器（MRI）奖项支持开放式架构、高通量和模块化增材制造仪器的开发。该仪器基于定向能沉积，能够在革命性的材料设计、大规模数据收集和过程人工智能方面实现新的研究能力。新的功能将使这个仪器与众不同，成为同类仪器中的第一个。它将具有一系列独特的功能，以解决增材制造当前和未来的技术挑战。它也将作为一个独特的工具来探索增材制造的工艺设计和物理。该项目将使本科生和研究生能够接触到先进制造业日益增长的多学科性质及其对大数据概念的适应。通过开发严格的过程监控能力，该仪器将能够实时研究加工方法对缺陷和最终零件质量的影响和后果（其长度尺度比今天的标准仪器小几个数量级）。该研究将把多材料合成能力（多材料打印）与高精度传感器（声发射传感、高光谱成像和多波长热测量）和过程测量视觉系统相结合，以实现闭环工艺修改和数据收集。设想的硬件和软件设计将使仪器不仅能够实时检测缺陷，而且还可以进行必要的处理调整（可能是组合或处理修改）来纠正这些错误。该仪器将大大超过目前商用金属增材仪器的能力，从而为制造工艺、方法和设备的多学科研究和开发提供广泛的机会。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) award supports the development of an open-architecture, high-throughput, and modular additive manufacturing instrument. This instrument is based on directed energy deposition to enable new research capabilities in revolutionary material design, large-scale data collection, and process artificial intelligence. The new capabilities will set this instrument apart, as the first of its kind. It will have a unique range of functionalities to address the current and future technical challenges in additive manufacturing. It will also serve as a unique tool to probe into the process design and physics of additive manufacturing. The project will enable undergraduate and graduate students to gain exposure to the growing multidisciplinary nature of advanced manufacturing and its adaption of big data concepts. By developing the capability for rigorous process monitoring, the instrument will enable the real-time study of the influence and consequences of processing methods on defects and ultimate part quality (at length scales that are orders of magnitude smaller than standard instruments today). The research will couple multi-material synthesis capabilities (multi-material printing) with high-precision sensors (acoustic emission sensing, hyperspectral imaging, and multi-wavelength pyrometry) and an in-process metrology vision system to enable closed-loop process modification and data collection. The envisioned hardware and software design will enable an instrument that is not only capable of detecting defects in real-time but can also make the necessary processing adjustments (may they be compositional or processing modifications) to correct these errors. This instrument will substantially outpace the current capabilities of commercial metal additive instruments, thus providing broad opportunities for multidisciplinary research and development of manufacturing processes, methods, and equipment.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.