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.
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Seurat Technologies, a Massachusetts-based startup, licensed a LLNL-invented metal AM technology in 2015 with the intention of commercializing a high-speed, high-resolution 3D printer to produce metal parts at industrial scale. Since then, Seurat has developed the lasers, optics, and equipment needed to bring the technology to market, further strengthening LLNL’s mission-driven development of advanced materials and manufacturing processes. In this video, explore how Seurat, with investments from NVIDIA and others, could revolutionize metal additive manufacturing.
In a record setting year for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), four teams of LLNL researchers will attend the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy I-Corps (EIC) Cohort 20 this spring.
The EIC is a key initiative of the DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions, and facilitated at LLNL by Hannah Farquar from the Innovation and Partnerships Office (IPO). Established in 2015, EIC pairs teams of scientists with industry mentors to train researchers in moving DOE lab-developed technologies toward commercialization.
Through a new process a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) team is calling Microwave Volumetric Additive Manufacturing (MVAM), researchers have introduced an innovative new approach to 3D printing using microwave energy to cure materials, opening the door to a broader range of materials than ever before.
Check out the technology page for MVAM!
LLNL researchers have developed additive manufactured fuel targets for IFE. They have been successful in using TPL to fabricate low density (down to 60 mg/cm3) and low atomic number (CHO) polymeric foams for potential targets, and some have been tested at the OMEGA Laser Facility. With TPL, LLNL researchers have also been able to fabricate a full fuel capsule with diameter of ~ 5mm or…