Oak Ridge National Laboratory debuted new convergent manufacturing platform at IMTS 2024.
A new convergent manufacturing platform developed in only five months at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) debuted last week at the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS), in Chicago.
According to ORNL, the technology, called Future Foundries, will open the door for hundreds of thousands of small- and medium-sized companies to join the convergent manufacturing revolution. It integrates multiple advanced manufacturing systems into a single platform.
Reshoring US Manufacturing
“The democratization of manufacturing will be a key component to keep U.S. manufacturers internationally competitive,” said ORNL’s Chief Manufacturing Officer Craig Blue in a press release. “The convergent manufacturing approach we are demonstrating at IMTS is a significant step toward realizing this vision. It has the potential to enable the expansion of domestic supply chains by enabling small companies to have significant impacts in a broader range of products.”
“This is a game-changer,” said Thomas Feldhausen in the same release. Feldhausen is a R&D staff member in ORNL’s Disruptive Manufacturing Systems Development group and principal investigator for the initiative. “Convergent manufacturing platforms significantly reduce production times, enhance material properties and streamline the transition from prototype to deployment,” he added.
Future Foundries is intended to supplement existing U.S. casting facilities and, in doing so, help increase domestic production of critical energy components to help the country achieve its clean energy goals. The technology also aims to strengthen the U.S. manufacturing base and support national security.
What’s in ORNL’s new platform?
Future Foundries incorporates wire-arc additive manufacturing, heat treatment, inspection and machining systems, physically connected by a centralized pallet changer. A smart manufacturing thread interconnects the entire platform, enabling communication between each robotic system and providing data to operators that can speed up production and inform future process improvements.
Core industry partners include Okuma and Fastems, which have provided both equipment and staff to help bring the platform together with ORNL’s team.
“This collaborative effort will provide attendees a glimpse at what can be done when talented engineers from several companies come together to demonstrate the future of manufacturing,” said Bob Baldizzi, Fastems sales manager. “Additive manufacturing technology has grown leaps and bounds in the last few years, but combining it with subtractive manufacturing and automation is quite a unique approach. Our automation solutions and dynamic scheduling software are a perfect fit for this application.”
Future Foundries Demonstrations
ORNL demonstrated the platform’s agility by running three demonstrations simultaneously:
- The repair of a wind turbine gear.
- The production of a component using readily available materials that typically would be cast.
- The creation of six unique challenge coins, each made daily from the same injection mold.
“Now manufacturers can be adaptable,” Feldhausen said. “If you have a machine shop and you have to change something in your process, you no longer have to start from the ground up. This is modular, so you can easily change out different aspects. We’re presenting a solution with unprecedented modularity, flexibility, connectivity, reconfigurability, portability and customization capabilities.”
Future Foundries was developed by a 40-plus-member, cross-disciplinary team at MDF that started work on the platform in April 2024. Following the IMTS show, the platform has returned to the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at ORNL where it will continue to serve as a foundation for ongoing research and development of convergent manufacturing technologies in support of U.S. industry.
