NSF Engines Development Award: Advancing additive manufacturing technologies (FL)

这一区域创新引擎发展奖的重点是试点2022年5月宣布的AM(添加剂制造)向前合作伙伴关系。该项目协调对采用添加剂制造(AM)的小型企业供应商的支持。AM Forward佛罗里达州将推动整个佛罗里达州的创新、经济发展、社区投资和就业增长。AM Forward的赞助公司包括波音公司、GE航空公司、霍尼韦尔航空航天公司、洛克希德·马丁公司、诺斯罗普·格鲁曼公司、雷神技术公司和西门子能源公司。每一个都将在这个项目中发挥重要作用，告知生产技术和材料的需求和未来的需求。因此，项目组将探索如何最好地加快工业生产供应商的资格认证(包括小型制造商合作伙伴Sintavia、Keystone和ACMT Aero)。推动AM采用的还将是新一代工程师和技术人员--反映不同经验的劳动力。该项目的合作伙伴包括全国领先的少数群体服务机构，包括佛罗里达国际大学、佛罗里达农工大学和佛罗里达州立大学工程学院、佛罗里达中部大学和佛罗里达大学，以及该州的旗舰研究大学。经过18个月的表现，提案团队将在全州举办六个研讨会-三个参与者研讨会和三个利益相关者研讨会-以确定佛罗里达州制造业创新生态系统的最佳方向。该项目将解决目前该州供应商基础的局限性，制造业工作岗位在美国排名第五。为了扭转这一局面，该项目将探索以地区为基础的AM，寻求材料配方、集成先进机器人和复合材料制造方面的突破。将探索一系列机器类型、材料和测试流程，以确保在公司/最终用户附近的佛罗里达州供应链中有效地部署AM。工业添加剂制造依赖于数据管理、拓扑和分析来进行设计优化、构建准备和模拟、现场监控、鉴定和测试。基于概率建模和机器学习的数据驱动的资格认证方法将为大学研究提供基础。这些努力将侧重于端到端解决方案、高效设计、自动化质量方法、确保可重复性，并支持大吞吐量的可扩展性。该NSF发动机开发奖将使团队能够制定一个完整的NSF发动机提案，使其更加知情、现实和可获得。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Regional Innovation Engines Development Award is focused on piloting the AM (Additive Manufacturing) Forward partnership announced in May 2022. This project coordinates support for small business suppliers adopting additive manufacturing (AM). AM Forward Florida will drive innovation, economic development, community investment, and job growth across Florida. AM Forward's sponsor companies include Boeing, GE Aviation, Honeywell Aerospace, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon Technologies, and Siemens Energy. Each will play an important role in this project, informing requirements and future demand for production technology and materials. The project team will thus explore how best to expedite the qualification of suppliers for industrial production (including small manufacturer partners Sintavia, Keystone, and ACMT Aero). Also driving AM adoption will be a new generation of engineers and technicians - a workforce reflecting diverse experiences. Partners in this project include the nation's leading minority-serving institutions, including Florida International University, Florida A&M University and Florida State University College of Engineering, University of Central Florida, and the University of Florida, the state's flagship research university.Over 18 months of performance, the proposing team will hold six workshops - three participant workshops and three stakeholder workshops - across the state to discern the best orientation of Florida's manufacturing innovation ecosystem. The project will address current limitations in the state’s supplier base, with the fifth lowest concentration of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. To reverse this, the project will explore regionally-based AM, pursuing breakthroughs in material formulations, integrated advanced robotics, and composite manufacturing. A range of machine types, materials, and testing processes will be explored to ensure effective AM deployment into Florida supply chains near companies/end-users. Industrial additive manufacturing depends on data management, topology, and analytics for design optimization, build preparation and simulation, in situ monitoring, qualification, and testing. Data-driven qualification approaches based on probabilistic modeling and machine learning will underpin university research. These thrusts will focus on end-to-end solutions, efficient design, automated quality methodologies, ensure repeatability, and support scalability for large throughput. This NSF Engine Development Award will enable the team to develop a full NSF Engine proposal, making it much more informed, realistic, and attainable.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.