Moore, Dave

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Industry 4.0 on the Factory Floor | UNH Todayhttps://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/2018/03/industry-40-factory-floor[7/26/2022 12:00:30 PM]Industry 4.0 on the Factory FloorTuesday, March 6, 2018As tools and techniques advance, UNHresearch helps manufacturers innovateWhen it comes to landing gear for airplanes, you want somethingthat’s just as strong on the thirty-thousandth landing as on thefirst. That’s the kind of perfection that captivates and motivatesresearchers at the University of New Hampshire.Alone, in pairs, in collaborative teams both on campus and inlarger consortia around the nation, UNH faculty are conductingbreakthrough research supporting the $1.7 trillion industry knownas advanced manufacturing — the use of innovative technology toimprove products or processes.SERIES: SPARK 2018  SUBSCRIBETO THE UNHTODAYNEWSLETTER  SUBSCRIBETO UNH TODAYRSSUNH TODAY  Industry 4.0 on the Factory Floor | UNH Todayhttps://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/2018/03/industry-40-factory-floor[7/26/2022 12:00:30 PM]TOP: ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OFMECHANICAL ENGINEERINGYANING LI BRINGS 3-D PRINTING TOMATERIALS INSPIRED BY NATURETHAT HAVE POTENTIALAPPLICATIONS FOR BIOMEDICINEAND CUSHIONING IN HELMETS ORFOOTWEAR. BOTTOM: YUNYAOJIANG, A MECHANICALENGINEERING DOCTORALCANDIDATE IN LI’S LAB, USES A 3-DPRINTED PROTOTYPE OF A UNIQUEDESIGN THAT COULD IMPROVEDRUG DELIVERY AND “SMART”MATERIALS.The fruits of their research,which focuses on areas asdiverse as wovencomposites, lightweightingmetals, polymers and the“smart” factories initiativecalled Industry 4.0, arehelping some of thecountry’s manufacturinggiants — familiar brands likeFord, General Motors,Alcoa, U.S. Steel and theU.S. Army — and lesserknown high-tech firmstransform themselves for thefuture. Several NewHampshire-basedcompanies such as AlbanyInternational and TurbocamInternational that makecomponents for jet enginesand landing gear used bycommercial airlines tapUNH’s advancedmanufacturing research,partnering with faculty andtheir students to test,measure and improve the materials in their products.“Industry 4.0 is about the fourth Industrial Revolution, where yourshop floor has machines sensing, adjusting processes andcommunicating with one another every step of manufacturing,”says Brad Kinsey, professor and chair of the mechanicalengineering department. “The goal is to make better productsIndustry 4.0 on the Factory Floor | UNH Todayhttps://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/2018/03/industry-40-factory-floor[7/26/2022 12:00:30 PM]faster and at scale. And we want to position UNH at the forefrontof this movement.”Kinsey works with leading U.S. automanufacturers to find ways to make lighter cars without sacrificingsafety. “My research on ways to form advanced metals and welddissimilar materials helps them achieve both objectives,” he says.Nearby in Kingsbury Hall, associate professor of mechanicalengineering Yannis Korkolis works along similar lines, studyinghow materials deform and how they can be shaped withoutbreaking when subjected to various forces and heat duringmanufacturing.“If you want to make a smart factory, you have to know how thematerials behave in order to design processes to work with them,”Korkolis says. For example, an emergingarea of advancedmanufacturing involvesadditive manufacturing — 3-D printing — in this case notof plastic trinkets but of partsfor jet engines, among othersophisticated equipment.While already in use, 3-Dprinting may enablecompanies to manufacturejet engine parts made of nickel-based super alloys. Rather thanassembling lots of moving parts out of different materials — andperhaps introducing errors in manufacturing as well as lessdurable end products — an aerospace giant like Boeing might oneday be able to print, say, a dozen turbines.When that day comes, they’ll have faculty researchers likeIndustry 4.0 on the Factory Floor | UNH Todayhttps://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/2018/03/industry-40-factory-floor[7/26/2022 12:00:30 PM]“Industry 4.0 is aboutthe fourth IndustrialRevolution, whereyour shop floor hasmachines sensing,adjusting processesand communicatingwith one anothermechanical engineering assistant professor Marko Knezevic,professor Igor Tsukrov and their graduate students to thank. Theyhave been working to characterize the properties of various metalalloys such as cobalt, nickel or magnesium and how they react tolaser sintering, a process central to realizing the 3-D printingpromise.In another project with aerospace applications, Tsukrov and ToddGross, professor of mechanical engineering, worked with AlbanyInternational to solve the problem of “microcracking” in carboncomposites used in landing gear. “You want your plane to havegear that can absorb a lot of energy, time after time,” Tsukrovsays. He’s turned to 3-D printing as a potential solution. “Whenyou print something, it is complete. There’s nothing to puttogether. And nothing to come apart,” he says.Knezevic’s research on the behavior of various metal-metal andmetal-ceramic composites to laser sintering has applications tothings as large as pipelines and as small as biodegradable stentsfor heart patients. This research employs computer modeling forwhat materials should be used, how they will react duringmanufacture and how they can be expected to perform on theground.Yaning Li, an assistant professor ofmechanical engineering, brings 3-Dprinting to nature-inspired materials,called auxetic chiral composites, thathave unique properties whencompressed or stretched. 3-Dprinting lets her manufacture and testthese new structures, which havepotential applications for biomedicineas well as for cushioning in helmetsand even shoes, where they excel atIndustry 4.0 on the Factory Floor | UNH Todayhttps://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/2018/03/industry-40-factory-floor[7/26/2022 12:00:30 PM]every step ofmanufacturing.”absorbing energy.Associate professor of chemistryJohn Tsavalas is taking things “down”a notch as part of a proposal to the National Science Foundationto study the behavior of materials built from nanoparticles for theproduction of human tissues. If the proposal is accepted, his teamaims to work with the Advanced Regenerative ManufacturingInstitute (ARMI) in Manchester, the major partnership led byinventor and DEKA and FIRST Robotics founder Dean Kamen.“One specific project goal is to discover how 3-D printingtechnology might be adapted to print with highly tailored nano-sized building blocks on which tissues can be grown. Call it ‘betterhuman health through materials,’” Tsavalas says.All this talent and enterprise benefits from UNH’s Center forAdvanced Materials and Manufacturing Initiative (CAMMI), whichfacilitates collaborative research and industry partnerships. Andthe new John Olson Center for Advanced Manufacturing, madepossible by a gift from Charlestown-based Whelen Engineering inhonor of its longtime president John Olson ’57, will providestudents and practitioners alike with hands-on skills-developmentopportunities.“The center will have the look and feel of a real factory floor andbecome a focal point of teaching, research and industrypartnership in New Hampshire,” says Olson Center director DeanBartles. Clearly, the future of advanced manufacturing is presentat UNH.ceps.unh.edu/cammiSPARK 2018WRITTENBY:Dave Moore | Freelance WriterIndustry 4.0 on the Factory Floor | UNH Todayhttps://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/2018/03/industry-40-factory-floor[7/26/2022 12:00:30 PM]RELATED ARTICLESSeptember 17, 2021 |  GRANTS AND CONTRACTS NEWSUNH Scientists Receive $1M to SupportCritical Soil Sustainability ResearchIndustry 4.0 on the Factory Floor | UNH Todayhttps://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/2018/03/industry-40-factory-floor[7/26/2022 12:00:30 PM]April 22, 2021 |  COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCESThree Students Awarded SMART ScholarshipIndustry 4.0 on the Factory Floor | UNH Todayhttps://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/2018/03/industry-40-factory-floor[7/26/2022 12:00:30 PM]May 20, 2021 |  NH AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONUNH Scientists Aim to Solve a Million DollarProblem for Aquaculture IndustryUNH Today is produced for the UNH communityand for friends of UNH.The stories are written by the staff of UNHCommunications and Public Affairs.Email us: unhtoday.editor@unh.edu.          UNH Today  •  UNH Main Directory: 603-862-1234Copyright © 2022  •  TTY Users: 7-1-1 or 800-735-2964 (Relay NH)USNH Privacy Policies  •  USNH Terms of Use  • ADA AcknowledgementIndustry 4.0 on the Factory Floor | UNH Todayhttps://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/2018/03/industry-40-factory-floor[7/26/2022 12:00:30 PM]MANAGE YOUR SUBSCRIPTION      CONTACTUS 

Industry 4.0 on the Factory Floor

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Industry 4.0 on the Factory Floor

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