Skip to main content

Advanced Manufacturing is the use of innovative technologies to create new or existing products. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s advanced manufacturing portfolio can be organized into four main groups: Additive Manufacturing is the process of joining materials to make objects from 3D model data, usually layer upon layer, as opposed to subtractive manufacturing methodologies. Precision Engineering is the design and fabrication of machines, fixtures, and other structure that have exceptionally low tolerances, are repeatable, and are stable over time. Manufacturing Simulation & Automation comprises technologies that reduce human intervention in manufacturing processes, as well as a set of tools that allows for experimentation and validation of product, process, and system designs & configurations. Manufacturing Improvements are inventions that improve throughput/efficiency, or that reduce cost/waste.

Portfolio News and Multimedia

Image
Energy I-Corps experience shines light on bringing specialty resin to the silicone 3D-printing market

At LLNL, Huang and Ford are working toward developing a new method to make high-performance silicone parts that can be 3D printed and cured using ultraviolet light.  The researchers participated in the Department of Energy’s Energy I-Corps Program, an immersive eight-week entrepreneurial boot camp that teaches scientists and engineers the tools of the trade for commercializing technology from the Lab to the marketplace.

While the Energy I-Corps program is funded by the DOE Office of Technology Transitions, the participation of LLNL’s Ford and Huang in the program was funded by the National Nuclear Security Administration.

Image
LLNL and Meta engineers develop 3D-printed material with potential for more lifelike wearables

Engineers and chemists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Meta have developed a new kind of 3D-printed material capable of replicating characteristics of biological tissue, an advancement that could impact the future of “augmented humanity.”

Building Better Materials with Data Science (Digital Twins)

Research engineer Brian Giera, PhD, describes how data science techniques help collect and analyze data from advanced manufacturing processes in order to craft meaningful experiments.

Advanced Manufacturing Technologies

Image
microencapsulation_manufacture
Livermore researchers have developed a method of fabricating functional polymer-based particles by crosslinking UV-curable polymer drops in mid-air and collecting crosslinked particles in a solid container, a liquid suspension, or an air flow. Particles could contain different phases in the form or layered structures that contain one to multiple cores, or structures that are blended with…